Genetics, Genomics

Abstract

Genetics and epigenetics form the blueprints for all life. Understanding genetics is critical to understanding everything from evolution to cancer. This course covers the fundamentals of modern genetics, with an emphasis on molecular mechanisms, and the use of genetic tools to understand biological biological processes in bacteria, model organisms and humans.

Objective

At the end of this course you will know how traits are inherited between generations and how they move through populations. You will understand the molecular processes that give rise to observable genetic outcomes. You will know the most important genetic tools in different organisms. You will understand how genetic “problems” give rise to a variety of diseases and the fundamentals of modern genetic engineering.

Content

Genetics is fundamentally the study of information and describes how heritable information gets passed around and how it changes over time. How is information passed from cell to cell and generation to generation? How is the information in your cells kept safe? The information in genes codes for all of the traits that make any organism what it is. Traits can be simple, like hair color. Or they can be complex, like intelligence. Genetics is also the bedrock of evolution. Evolution works by selecting for traits, which are then fundamentally reflected in the genetic information present in all individuals at a given time. Understanding genetics helps us make sense of both ourselves and every organism in the world. In addition to driving evolution, genetic changes can also have negative consequences. There are over 7’000 “monogenic” (single gene) diseases currently known, afflicting over 350’000’000 people worldwide. Far more prevalent, cancer is ultimately caused by the corruption of genetic information. Genetic changes that cause cancer subvert normal, collaborative cells into opportunistic, selfish scavengers. We cannot understand health or disease without understanding the genetics of these processes. The course is divided into two major parts: Concepts, and Applications. In the Concepts section, you will learn the principles of modern genetics. We take a primarily molecular approach, always trying to link traits back to the physical reality of what is happening to the underlying information carrier. You will come to understand how organisms pass traits to their offspring, how to infer the underlying hidden genetics from trait-level observations, the complex machineries that safeguard your genes, and the real reason sex was invented. In the Applications section, you will learn how the principles of genetics are used for research and technology. Every aspect of biology can be better understood by using genetics, and our knowledge of every gene in any given organism stems from genetic research. Even if you prefer biochemistry or biophysics over genetics, the use of genetic technologies can reveal key things like the order of enzymes in a pathway or alternate binding partners that regulate activity. The lectures in the Applications section are taught by cutting-edge experts in each area, from CRISPR therapies to population-level discovery of disease factors. Frontal lectures are accompanied by self-study and exercises. To really understand the material, you are strongly encouraged to do all of these! It’s one thing to hear in lecture that a pedigree can be used to infer genetic backgrounds. It’s an entirely other thing to be presented with a family pedigree and need to determine the probable genotype of an unborn child. Real-world problems are almost always puzzles to be figured out, rather than facts to be repeated, so it’s a good idea to practice your puzzle-solving skills.

Resources