Experimental Systems Biology & Complex Human Disorders

Catalog description

A typical cell expresses thousands of gene products and synthesizes nearly as many metabolites. How do these components interact with each other and what are the rules governing such interactions? Systems biology attempts first to define what the cell's parts list is, then through establishing how these elements interact, define the emergent properties of such interactions. This course combines lecture, class discussions, and lab experiments to explore key elements of systems biology while exploring the genetic basis of disorders with complex inheritance pattern. Students will carry out high-throughput transcriptome sequencing of human brain RNA samples to measure the expression of gene products implicated in complex neurological disorders. Clustering, gene-set enrichment, and network reconstruction will be carried out to explore the relationship between gene expression and gene function. Last, students will be introduced to yeast two-hybrid technology and reconstruction of networks based on existing Y2H datasets will be carried out and studied.