Genetics
Tues/Thurs

Genetics covers fundamentals principles of genetics, focusing primarily on yeast, the fruit fly, and the mouse. Problem sets are an integral learning tool in this course.

Molecular Biology and Genomics
Mon/Wed/Fri

This course module covers the Molecular Biology and Genomics of both prokaryotes (using E. coli as the model organism) and eukaryotes, with a focus on "model organisms" including yeast, flies, worms, mice as well as humans. Both the Molecular Biology (reductionist) perspective and the Genomics (systems biology) perspective will be provided on each topic, and there will be heavy emphasis on mechanism and regulation of fundamental processes in biological information transfer DNA->RNA-> protein. This lecture module will cover genes and genomes, transcription and RNA world, replication, chromosome structure and function and genome instability.

Organic Mechanisms in Biology
Wed/Fri

This course deals with the chemical mechanisms of enzymes. It is intended to illustrate how catalysis in biological systems can be understood using principles derived from organic reaction mechanisms.

Cell Structure and Dynamics
Mon/Wed/Fri

The objective of this course is to provide the basics of cell biology, including the structure, function and biogenesis of cellular organelles. Also covered are essential concepts on the cytoskeleton, cell-cell and cell-estracellular matrix interactions, cell motility, chaperones, and protein turnover.

Pathways and Regulation
Tues/Thurs

This course will cover the principles of membrane transport, bioenergetics, metabolic pathways, cell cycle and cell death with particlar enphasis on regulatory mechanisms including receptor-mediated signaling, small GTPases, lipid molecules, kinases and phosphatases.

Bioinformatics
Mondays

This short course is a survey of quantitative methods in modern biology and the computational concepts that are developing to analyze large data sets. Topics range from a review of statistics to problems in sequence analysis to the modeling of complex systems. The goal of the course is to familiarize students with the concepts of computational biiology rather than to achieve a deep understanding of any one topic.

Core Discussion
Fridays

Core Discussion is a small-group discussion which corresponds to the core module lectures.

The core course modules are completed in the first three quarters of the academic year (Sept. - Mar.). In the fourth quarter (Mar.-May), first year students take four short elective courses and the Research and Career Issues in Science course. Students begin to focus on a research area of interest.

MD/PhD and MSTP students doing their PhD research in the BCMB program are exempt from these first year electives. The medical school electives fufill this requirement.

First Year Electives

The above core course modules are completed in the first three quarters of the academic year (Sept. - March). In the fourth quarter (March-May), first year students take four short elective courses and the Research and Career Issues in Science course (see below).

Students begin to focus on a research area of interest through choosing these electives. Courses are offered in Neurobiology, Developmental Biology, Epigenetics, RNA Biology, Molecular Immunology, Virology, Membrane Traffic, The Cytoskeleton, Genomic Plasticity, Cell Migration, etc.

Lab Rotations

During the first year, each student carries out research in three different laboratories. To help students become familiar with the many different research opportunities in BCMB, a weekend retreat is held for faculty research talks, and faculty research presentations continue throughout September.

Students have the opportunity to present one talk and one poster on two of their three rotation projects.

First year class members celebrate after the first exam is over!

At the end of the three rotations, each student selects a laboratory for thesis work.

Fellowship and Proposal Writing Mini Course

Incoming students complete a mini course to learn how to write a proposed research plan. Most students submit their proposals as part of National Science Foundation, NIH Minority, and/or Ford Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship applications.

Ethics and Career Issues in Science
Fridays

First year BCMB students complete research ethics training in a variety of formats. The School of Medicine requires on-line training in certain areas such of conflict of interest, scientific misconduct, and HIPPA compliance. This is followed by a one day School of Medicine seminar with small group discussions and case studies related to academic honesty, data management and plagiarism. BCMB has a spring course just for first year BCMB students "Ethics and Career Issues in Science." This discussion course focuses on responsible conduct of research in science and preparedness for a science career. Topics include Issues of Diversity, Mentoring, Misconduct/Fraud, Authorship Issues, Conflict of Interest, Scientific Record Keeping, Animal and Human Experimentation, Funding Strategies and Career Development.