Elective credit: MCB 113 counts as an elective for BMB, GG&D & will count toward CDB if combined with another 2-unit relevant course.

MCB 113. Applied Microbiology & Biochemistry (Spring 2010 - 2 units)
TuTh 11-12
CCN #58378
Instructor: Hiroshi Nikaido (MCB)

Great advances in recombinant DNA methods, and more recently in genomic sequencing methodology, have transformed biology from a purely "academic" discipline to one that has a growing impact on everyday life through remarkable changes in medicine, agriculture, and other fields. Yet this exciting development is covered very little in traditional courses of MCB. This course will examine this rapidly advancing aspect of biology, through an interdisciplinary approach encompassing chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, and microbiology. We hope that you will enroll in this course if you are interested in learning how advances in "real" science are made. You should be warned, however, that this is a course in which you will be asked to synthesize your knowledge in various fields, and to think independently and creatively, rather than to memorize every detail by rote.

The topics covered include: microbe as living factory for macromolecules, synthetic vaccines, microbial insecticides, plant-microbe interactions, biomass conversion for the production of ethanol, production of chemicals and drugs in microbes, amino acids, and antibiotics, biocatalysis in organic chemistry, and environmental applications including degradation of toxic compounds, waste water treatment, and mineral recovery. THIS WILL BE A PARTICULARLY EXCITING YEAR, AS THE SECOND EDITION OF THE TEXTBOOK PROF. NIKAIDO WROTE WITH PROF. GLAZER IS NOW AVAILABLE (Microbial Biotechnology, 2nd Ed., Cambridge University Press).

This course would be of particular interest to majors in biochemistry and molecular biology, genetics, microbiology, plant biology, chemistry and chemical engineering, as well as to graduate students in these disciplines.

The course requires prior exposure to basic biochemistry (either MCB 100B or 102). Knowledge of microbiology (MCB C112) will help, but is not a prerequisite (in contrast to the description in the catalog) as the needed background aspects of microbiology and molecular biology will be presented at the beginning of the course.