What do proteins, DNA, and RNA look like? Where do these molecules fit in your body and how do they work? This seminar will introduce you to the basics of biology in three dimensions (3D) using human anatomy, physiology, and disease as themes.
The focus of the Spring Semester 2025 Molecular View of Human Anatomy course will be to understand the 3D structures and functions of proteins that play key roles in Cancer Biology. Student learning and discussions will focus on molecular mechanisms underpinning causes and treatments of human cancers. During the first half of the semester, students will learn the fundamentals of structural biology - how proteins, DNA, and RNA are shaped and how their three-dimensional structures are experimentally determined. They will be introduced to specific cytoplasmic enzymes in cancer metabolic pathways, cell-surface receptors, and intra-cellular signaling molecules (such as Protein Kinases and Phosphatases) that perform important functions and are impacted in cancers. Students will learn to appreciate how knowledge about 3D structures of biomolecules can play an important role in understanding function and in turn enable validation of drug targets. In the second half of the course, students will conduct supervised research on contemporary ideas concerning the precise molecular mechanism of action of pharmacologic agents (including small molecule, immune checkpoint, and cell-based therapeutics), currently used to treat human cancers.
Throughout the semester, students will learn to use scientific data resources (including the Protein Data Bank, PubMed, UniProt, The Cancer Genome Atlas, cBioPortal), critically read scientific articles, identify molecules related to assigned topics, analyze them in detail, and write scholarly articles about them. Students will have the opportunity to get their articles reviewed by experts in the field and publish them on an online educational resource.
All class related material will be made available online. Students are strongly encouraged to bring in their own laptops to class. Other than one of the standard internet browsers, no additional specialized software will be required.
The seminar has no pre-requisites; science and non-science majors are encouraged to enroll. Non-science majors may have to read, work with their peers and/or instructors to learn some scientific vocabulary. The seminar requires research-based learning (including reading the scientific literature, exploring molecular structures from public databases, analyzing, and integrating information from different sources) and familiarizes students with a structural view of biology at the atomic level. Student learning will be evaluated on the bases of two written reports and two oral presentations related to structural aspects of the course them plus participation in class discussions/activities.