Developmental Biology

Catalog description

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the broad field of developmental biology. A particular emphasis is the intimate connection between developmental biology and evolution, which will be a theme throughout the course. Additional emphasis is on the connection between mechanisms of normal development and disease etiology. The course will cover general principles of development and current important issues. Relevant ethical issues will be discussed. Both invertebrate and vertebrate model systems will be covered, including Drosophila, C. elegans, chick, frog, zebrafish, mice and human. Another emphasis of the course is to teach you how to experimentally approaching the topic of development. We will therefore emphasize how to formulate and test hypotheses. Students will become familiar with cutting edge molecular, genetic and imaging techniques that are applicable to analysis of many aspects of development.