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Principles of Molecular Physiology

GPSO-717

Principles of Molecular Physiology is a 2 credit intermediate level graduate course designed to provide modern approaches of molecular biology to the students specializing in physiology, pharmacology, neuroscience, and molecular and cellular biology disciplines, however, open to all other areas of graduate and medical education. The prerequisites for the course are Cell Signaling and Membrane Function (GPSO 601) and Graduate Biochemistry 722.

The course is designed to provide the essential and modern approaches of molecular biology as a potential and powerful tools to study the physiological and pathophysiological aspects of the disease. The initial topics cover with emphasis on gene cloning, PCR, gene expression, and site-directed mutagenesis. As this course advances, the recent developments in antisense olibonucleotides, transgenics, gene knockouts/gene duplication, gene transfer, and gene therapy technologies are discussed with general emphasis and application in physiology. Finally, the course highlights the molecular approaches to study the selected physiological and pathophysiological topics such as hypertension, diabetes, and ion channel activities.

The course consists of didactic lectures and literature discussions. Each lecture covers a two-hour period. The literature discussion may include student presentation followed by discussion. There will be a mid-term exam and final exam.

Lecture List