How can a tick bite cause a meat allergy? And does cranberry …
How can a tick bite cause a meat allergy? And does cranberry juice do anything to help cure a urinary tract infection? To answer these and other questions, we are going to take a dive into the molecular world of microbes. In this class, we will use the primary research literature to explore the molecular interactions between pathogens and their hosts that allow microbes to cause infectious diseases. We will examine the factors that pathogens use to colonize a host and how the host response can impact the outcome of the infection. By the end of the class, students will have both developed critical scientific skills in evaluating scientific literature and an appreciation of the microbes influencing our lives and health every day. This course is one of many Advanced Undergraduate Seminars offered by the Biology Department at MIT. These seminars are tailored for students with an interest in using primary research literature to discuss and learn about current biological research in a highly interactive setting. Many instructors of the Advanced Undergraduate Seminars are postdoctoral scientists with a strong interest in teaching.
Drawings and animations, are used to help participants understand the differences between …
Drawings and animations, are used to help participants understand the differences between and steps involved in mitosis and meiosis. The cell cycle as well as individual steps of mitosis and meiosis are included in this learning material.
This course develops and applies scaling laws and the methods of continuum …
This course develops and applies scaling laws and the methods of continuum and statistical mechanics to biomechanical phenomena over a range of length scales, from molecular to cellular to tissue or organ level.
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by …
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"Despite advances in therapy, the prognosis and survival of patients with glioblastoma remain dismal. Part of the reason is poor targeting. The sheer complexity of tumor growth at the molecular scale makes it difficult to pinpoint the origin of gliomas. In recent years, more targeted research has led to the discovery of chains of molecular events that regulate glioma development, including the unusual trafficking of proteins into the nucleus of glioma cells. In a new study, researchers examined this glioma-related behavior for the protein doublecortin (DCX). DCX is a neuronal protein crucial for the formation of new neurons in adulthood and for neuronal migration. While researchers have looked at how glioma cells shuttle different proteins to their nucleus, this marked the first time that scientists zeroed in on DCX. The team found that high accumulation of DCX in the nucleus boosted the invasiveness of glioma cells, whereas blocking the nuclear import of DCX reduced glioma proliferation..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.
This is a classroom activity in which students observe and describe cells …
This is a classroom activity in which students observe and describe cells in stages of division. They share observations about what they see in the cells, then formulate questions and do research concerning the changes that take place in cells during the process.
Join Scripps Institution's Bill Fenical and learn how recent discoveries of antibiotic-producing …
Join Scripps Institution's Bill Fenical and learn how recent discoveries of antibiotic-producing Bacteria in the deep oceans suggest that the last remaining resource for new Antimicrobial drugs may well be the microorganisms that inhabit the oceans. (56 minutes)
How do seemingly harmless invertebrates and seaweeds defend themselves against predators? How …
How do seemingly harmless invertebrates and seaweeds defend themselves against predators? How do they ward off competitors for space and resources, or stop deadly infection by millions of marine microbes in seawater? Join Scripps Institutions' Melany Puglisi and find out the answer to these and other compelling questions about microbial pathogens in the marine environment. (40 minutes)
Brian Palenik describes how he and other marine scientists are exploring genomes …
Brian Palenik describes how he and other marine scientists are exploring genomes to understand how Phytoplankton, the "plants" of the sea, have adapted to life in the oceans. (28 minutes)
Join Dr. Kathy Barbeau and explore the world of Phytoplankton, from the …
Join Dr. Kathy Barbeau and explore the world of Phytoplankton, from the molecular to the global scale, in her quest to understand the mysterious role of iron in Phytoplankton ecology. (55 minutes)
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by …
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"The ability to label and manipulate proteins in the body is essential to modern biological research. Unfortunately, current methods, such as tagging with antibodies, are often inefficient and expensive. Even worse, researchers are realizing that many of the antibodies available just simply don’t work. Now, a new molecular tool could help researchers break through that barrier. Researchers in the Soderling Laboratory of the Cell Biology Department at Duke University, have developed a high-throughput system capable of modifying entire panels of proteins using a new dual-vector gene-editing approach. Dubbed Homology-independent Universal Genome Engineering, this system allows for the dynamic visualization and functional manipulation of proteins both in vitro and in vivo, including in neurons. This is HiUGE. HiUGE isn’t the first protein-modifying system to rely on gene editing..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.
In this lesson, students use the app, Powers of Minus Ten Bone, …
In this lesson, students use the app, Powers of Minus Ten Bone, to discover the innerworkings of cells and their organelles. Exploration of the app is guided with the use of a scaffolded worksheet as well as a class discussion. Later in the lesson, student groups are assigned a specific organelle and use the information contained in the app to draw similarities and differences between the buildings in a city to the organelles inside a cell. Students will construct a clay model of an organelle as well as a model of a city building. Finally, student groups are asked to present their work via a class presentation followed by a creative writing assignment.
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