Instructor: Dr. Carol Bokros, Dr. Kevin Drace, and Dr. Tom Huber

Office Hours: Dr. Bokros: TR 12:30 - 1:30 in WSC 221

                      Dr. Drace: M 10:00 - 11:30 and R 1:30 - 2:30

                      Dr. Huber: M 10:00 - 10:50, W 1:00 - 1:50, R 10:15 - 10:45

Lecture Times: 9:00 - 9:50 am, MWF, WSC Lecture Hall

Archive    Syllabus    Enthalpy or Entropy Recitation    Last year's first test    Huber's growth data    Drace's growth data    Bokros' growth data     Last year's second test    Dihybrid cross

Signal transduction pathways    Last year's third test    Flu replication

Earlier entries have been moved to the Archive, which can be accessed using the button link above.

Review Session for Final: I will have a review session on Wednesday, December 10, from 1:30 to 3:00 pm in the lecture hall. At that time I should be able to give you a sense about the format of the final. Here's what I'm shooting for: about twenty 1-pt slide questions, about 50 2-pt multiple choice questions, and about  80 pts worth of short answer/problems/essay, etc. In all, about a 200-pt test where about 60-65% of the questions is from new material (Flu story on) and about 35-40% is from review material. By the way, the key to the last problem set is available here (Genetics III Key).

Friday, December 5: After finishing our discussion about acquired immunity, we will finish the semester by turning to a few topics related to Biotechnology (Chapter 20). In class, I will only lecture on Section 20.1, a portion of Section 20.2, and the small section "Forensic Evidence and Genetic Profiles" (pages 396-409; 419-420). Several of the methods I'll talk about we've used in the laboratory, so they should be somewhat familiar already. In class I will briefly talk about an additional application of this technology: The Human Genographic Project of National Geographic.

Wednesday, December 3: I will be shortening the reading assignments listed in the syllabus for these last two days. I'd rather do this than try to rush through the material during the last week. In the rest of Chapter 43, which I hope to cover today, we will only look at pages 936-948. This is the chapter we are currently concerned with in class. Our main focus today will be on acquired immunity. The two main types of cells involved are B lymphocytes (B cells) and T lymphocytes (T cells), including both Cytotoxic T cells and Helper T cells. This is a very interesting, but difficult topic, and it involves many concepts we've talked about previously. I've looked carefully at your book, and can't really select focused readings and figures of particular importance, because they're all so vital to your understanding of this complicated system. So, instead, I just eliminated section 43.4 from your reading. Please try to read sections 43.2 through 43.3 before coming to class.

Monday, December 1: After finishing our look at prokaryotic diversity, we will turn to the immune system (Chapter 43) and consider how the human body "fights back" against potential pathogens, with at least some special consideration of defenses against the flu virus. Two major kinds of defense strategies have evolved: innate immunity and acquired immunity. Today, we will focus on innate immunity and consider both external defenses and internal defenses, with a focus on cell types (click here for a website picture of some of them) and their involvements. The focused reading includes the section on "Innate Immunity of Vertebrates" (pages 933-936). Figures of particular importance for today include Figures 43.1, 43.2, 43.4 and 43.7.

Monday, November 24: Well, today we'll talk first about eukaryotic control of transcription and then prokaryotic diversity (see entry below for details about what to read for prokaryotic diversity). In addition to what's listed in Friday's entry below, you should read pages 320-323 in Chapter 16 and pages 356-366 in Chapter 18. The directed reading in Chapter 18 includes "Differential Gene Express," "Regulation of Chromatin Structure" and "Regulation of Transcription Initiation" (pages 356-358 and 358-362). Figures of particular importance include Figures 16.21, 18.6, 18.7, 18.8, 18.9 and 18.10.