38-709: Applied Cell and Molecular Biology
This course will examine applications of modern cell and molecular biology, with emphasis on commercial products and processes. The course will include a basic background in the major topics that would be covered in courses on prokaryotic and eukaryotic molecular biology and molecular cell biology. The course is intended for non-specialists who seek an understanding and appreciation of fundamental concepts without the analysis of experimental detail that would support the development of concepts in a course for the specialist. The course will draw on the patent literature as a source of commercial applications of biological discoveries. Examples of the topics that might be included are: diagnostic and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (e.g., Herceptin), therapeutic proteins (e.g., colony stimulating factors, erythropoietin, hormones), antibiotics, subunit molecular vaccines, amino acid fermentations, enzyme based processes for chemical synthesis, gene therapy, stem cells and regenerative medicine, herbicide tolerant plants, microbial diagnostics (e.g., multilocus sequence typing), transgenic animals, DNA fingerprinting.