RCS 702 - Molecular Biology and Genetics

3 Credit Hours
This course includes an introduction to molecular biology with an emphasis on the structure and function of both DNA and RNA and their roles in protein synthesis. Aspects of gene structure-function and regulation will also be discussed in this course, including a section on mitochondrial DNA. Research in this area includes the use of molecular techniques, which will be illustrated. This course also provides instruction in the fundamentals of human cytogenetics with discussions of chromosomal structure and cell division, as well as both genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of inheritance and different types of mutations and aneuploidies. This course will also introduce basic molecular biological techniques that are used in current molecular biological research including DNA, RNA isolation and analysis, protein isolation and analysis, genetic engineering, cloning and sequencing, gene expression analysis, PCR and quantitative real-time RCR.