BIO512: Topics in biology-II

        [Cr:4, Lc:3, Tt:0, Lb:0]

Course Outline

• Systems Biology: Systems Biology attempts to integrate information available from the studyof the components that make up a biological system. Experimental studies have led to the accumulation of large amount of information in different areas of biology - on genetic and biochemical interaction networks, cell interactions during development, and organismal response to environmental stimuli, along with genome sequences and molecular understanding of diseases. Systems Biology investigates the behaviour and relationships of all of the elements in a particular biological system while it is functioning, and describes the information using mathematical, computational, and graphical techniques to find the underlying design and working principles. In this set of nine lectures, this emerging area will be introduced and basic methods elaborated. Few specific biological studies in this direction will be discussed.
• Animal Biotechnolgy: Somatic cells : cell lines, culture, handling, sorting, transfection Germ cells : extraction, micromanipulation, IVF, nuclear transfer, embryo cloning Transgenics, knockouts, knockdowns, xenografts Animal Health Biotechnolgy: (i) therapeutics : hormones, therapeutic proteins, DNA and protein vaccines, antibiotics, antibodies. (ii) host-pathogen interactions : viruses, microbial pathogens, parasites, prion Animal Product Biotechnology( i). leather : enzymatic dehairing, softening, dekeratinization ( ii) milk : altering constituents of milk proteomes
• Single-molecule Biology: (i) Biology at single-molecule resolution: Advantages over traditional (bulk) ensemble measurements. (ii) Technological advances in single-molecule detection, interrogation, tracking, analysis and manipulation. (iii) Single-molecule methodologies and measuring of molecular properties at single-molecule resolution (iv) Applications in biology: Motor proteins (F1-ATPase, phage DNA-packaging motor, kinesin, helicases, RNA polymerase etc.). Protein folding, assembly and enzymology Cell biology (cell membranes, lipid rafts, cell-signalling, nuclear pore transport, vesicle trafficking, neuronal communication, viral infection pathways, gene transcription and translation etc.).
• Stem Cell Biology: Overview of Stem Cell Biology Stem cells in plants and other model organisms Embryonic stem cells: maintenance of pluripotency and early lineage specification in mouse and human ESCs. Adult stem cells: Types of adult stem cells, Stem cell niche and its role in stem cell maintenance, Cellular plasticity Induced pluripotent stem cells: Epigenetics and reprogramming in stem cell biology Metabolic regulation of pluripotency and early lineage specification Cancer stem cells Policies and Ethics in stem cell research

Recommended Reading

• Ideker T. et al. (2001) A new approach to decoding life: Systems Biology. Annu. Rev. Genomics Hum. Genet., 2: 343-372.
• Kitano H. (2002) Systems Biology: A Brief Overview. Science, 295: 1662-1664.
• L. Castilho, Animal Cell Technology: From Biopharmaceuticals to Gene Therapy, Taylor and Francis (2008).
• T. Cartright, Animal Cells as Bioreactors, Cambridge Studies in Biotechnology Series, Cambridge University Press (1994).
• M. Butler, Animal Cell Culture and Technology : The Basics, 2nd Edn., Taylor and Francis (2004).
• R. Portner (ed), Animal Cell Biotechnology:Methods and protocols, 2nd Edn., Humana Press (2007).
• Alexander Knight (Ed), Single Molecule Biology, Academic Press (2008).
• P. Hinterdorfer and A. van Oijen (Eds), Handbook of Single-Molecule Biophysics, Springer (2009).
• R. Lanza, J. Gearhart, B. Hogan, D. Melton, R. Pederson, E. D. Thomas, J. Thomson and I. Wilmuti, Essentials of Stem Cell Biology, 2nd Edn., (2009).