Masterpiece Theater - Recent Classics in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

Biochemistry 816, Spring Semester, 2008

Location: Department Library (Room 6006) at 12:00 noon each Tuesday 

            This seminar series is an instructional activity of the Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Genetics Graduate Program.  All academic personnel affiliated with the Program are urged to attend regularly, and graduate students are required to attend.  Literature presentations will focus on a timely aspect in Biochemistry/Molecular Genetics by utilizing recent journal articles.  All presentations are to be illustrative (e.g. redraw graphs and data tables to simplify and to make displays readable).  The literature is not merely to be presented, but carefully critiqued.  The scope of each student presentation should be limited to one or two papers to make this in-depth critique possible.  Faculty presentations, however, will focus on more broadly-based reviews.

            This semester, the course will be organized around four pre-selected topics, each of which will occupy 3 weeks total.  In the first week of a topic, a faculty member will introduce the subject, provide an historical context, review critical findings, and set the stage for the work that will be presented by students in the two subsequent weeks.  Faculty members will also have guided the students who are presenting to appropriate articles. 

            As in the past, each student/faculty group is expected to plan and practice their series together.  As an additional aid to learning the art of presentation, either Rong Li, David Auble, or Joyce Hamlin will critique the talk with the student on the Friday of Monday before the talk.  On the preceding Friday, the presenter also should circulate a brief summary outlining the major points to be covered along with the citations for the journal articles to be discussed.  Each week there will continue to be a faculty member within the department assigned to critique the student's presentation (one-on-one after the talk) and also a student critic who will stimulate discussion by asking questions during the presentation.  Faculty critics who cannot attend their designated presentation:  please find a substitute critic.

Date Presenter Student Facutly Topic/Faculty
    Critic  Critic helper
         
Jan. 15 Ed Egelman     The bacterial flagellum
Jan. 22 Pinar Demirel Glen Bjerke Todd Stukenberg Jeff Smith
Jan. 29  Sutirtha Datta  Joe Johnson John Chirgwin  Joyce Hamlin 
         
Feb. 5 Ira Hall     Genome variation
Feb. 12  Rebekka Sprouse Woo-sin Park Dan Burke Joyce Hamlin
Feb. 19  Kimberly Wiggins Jake Wamsley Stefan Bekiranov Jeff Smith
         
Feb. 26 Bryce Paschal      The power of SUMO
Mar. 11 Jie Lin Brad Zerlanko  Ira Hall Pat Concannon
Mar. 18 Valerie Siclari Tara Burke Joel Hockensmith Joyce Hamlin 
         
Mar. 25 Weibin Shi     Genetics of atherosclerosis
Apr. 1 Laura Shankman Andrea DeSantis Dan Foltz Pat Concannon
Apr. 8 David Allison  Lauren Kingsley Marty Mayo Jeff Smith
         
Apr. 22  Dan Foltz     Histone variants
Apr. 29 Brice Keyes Stephen Baker Patrick Grant  Pat Concannon 
May 6  Stephanie Miller Anne Knowlton S. Khorasanizadeh  Jeff Smith
 

*Within each topic, the order of student presentations may be changed.  Faculty critics may also switch time slots.