Genetics Home Page
Here's a list of presentation dates for your genetics news item.
Genetics in the News
It seems that the 20,000-or-so genes that make up the human genome are controlled by control elements in what used to be called "junk" DNA because scientists had no idea what it did. Now the ENCODE project has published a series of papers describing the roughly 4 million genetic switches controlling those genes.
It has long been known that the risk of bearing a child with Down syndrome increases with a mother's age; recent work has shown that the risk of having a child with autism or schizophrenia increases with the father's age as a result of an increasing number of random mutations in sperm as men age.
The ability to sequence entire genomes increasingly rapidly is changing the landscape of many areas of science, and also is beginning to have an impact on clinical medical practice. Researchers were able to trace the path of infection of a "superbug" in a major hospital which killed 6 patients; this will almost certainly have an effect on how nosicomial infections are handled in years to come.
Two things: one, even professionals make mistakes. Two, Statistics is Real Important. (read more)
Okay, this isn't genetics news, but it is so very cool that I know you'll be interested: computer game-players solve a problem that professional scientists have been struggling with for a decade!
From a few years ago: "Word that genetic researchers had discovered a cell of rice contains more genes than a human cell caused widespread outrage as people across the globe attempted to prove that humans are easily as smart as a grain of rice." (read more)
Study Aids
Promega is a major bioreagent supplier, and they have a number of helpful videos available, including one on the basics of PCR.
The DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has a number of good animations of molecular genetic techniques, including ones for gel electrophoresis, PCR, and cycle DNA sequencing.
There are several good animations of molecular processes online, including several from Prof. John Giannini at St. Olaf College, including DNA replication, transcription, and translation. Another animation of transcription is at biostudio.com.
In a somewhat lighter vein, here's a link to a classic comparison of genetic and biochemical approaches to a problem.
Classes
Lectures will be held in Collier 202 (Mellon Lecture Hall)
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 10:20 am to 11:30 am
Lab
Lab meets in Room 301, Collier Hall of Science
Wednesday afternoons from 1:15 to 4:15
Thursday afternoons from 12:45 to 3:45
Friday afternoons from 1:15 to 4:15
Text
The text required for this course is the 1st edition of Genetic Analysis: An Integrated Approach, by Sanders and Bowman, published by Pearson (2012).
For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, Moravian College considers this to be a personal page. Therefore it is incumbent on me to point out that "The views expressed on this page are the responsibility of the author, Christopher Jones (cjones-at-moravian-dot-edu) and do not necessarily reflect Moravian College or Moravian Theological Seminary policies or official positions."