BIOL463-21S1 (C) Semester One 2021

Cell Biology

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 22 February 2021
End Date: Sunday, 27 June 2021
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 7 March 2021
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 14 May 2021

Description

A critical examination of recent advances in cell biology with emphasis on cell signalling, the cytoskeleton, cell junctions and the nucleus. The focus ranges from fundamental cellular and molecular biology to consideration of cellular mechanisms within the context of physiological or pathological processes.

During the course our aim is to encourage and provide advice and feedback to enable you to develop skills in written and oral communication, and in the efficient acquisition of scientific information. The course will involve group discussion, presentation of scientific papers, and preparation and critique of a review article.

Learning Outcomes

  • As a student in this course, I will:
  • Gain a greater appreciation and understanding of the internal workings of the cell (assessment task: seminars, literature review and final exam).
  • Achieve familiarity with some modern laboratory methods used in cell biology, and an understanding of the diversity of experimental approaches that can be taken to investigate cells (assessment task: seminars, literature review and final exam).
  • Comprehend the unity of eukaryotic life - understand that the cell biology of organisms as diverse as plants, fungi and lower animals will help investigations of human biology and disease (assessment task: seminars, literature review and final exam)
  • Understand that to build multicellular organisms requires interactions between cells, and the differentiation and specialisation of cells (assessment task: seminars, literature review and final exam)
  •       Appreciate how research in cell biology leads to a better understanding of disease and an understanding of the factors that are pertinent with respect to Māori health and the impact of colonisation.
    Transferable Skills Register
    As a student in this course, I will develop the skills required to:
  • Synthesise information. In everyday life and in many job situations you will be required to read information from different sources, generate your own understanding and develop your own viewpoint. In the seminars we will discuss recent research papers and this will develop your abilities to identify the essential elements of research outputs - you will use these skills in report writing.
  • Analyse information. Important for research, as well as in a number of private-sector organizations. This skill will be further developed when we assist you to analyse the data we generate in the lab.
  • Write a literature review. Clear written communication is essential for most professional careers. We will provide you with written guidelines on the elements of successful reports, including how best to present data, and we will help you recognise these elements by supplying examples.
  • Give a verbal presentation. In many jobs there is a requirement to give presentations to groups of people and to answer questions relating to your presentation. You will have to opportunity to practice these skills during the seminars.

Prerequisites

Subject to approval of the Head of School. RP: Recommended preparatory course BIOL351 or BIOL331/BCHM301

Restrictions

BIOL432

Recommended Preparation

Recommended preparatory course BIOL351 or BIOL331/BCHM301

Timetable Note

BIOL 432 extends the coverage of a number of topics introduced in BIOL351, as well as introducing
topics that were not covered in that course. Your BIOL351 lecture notes and/or sections of Molecular Biology of the Cell by Alberts et al will often be given as background reading. The 6th edition of this very impressive textbook has just been released, but references will also be given to the 5th edition. The 4th and 5th editions of Alberts are also in the Restricted Loan section of the Central Library, and a nonformatted version of the 4th edition of Alberts et al. is accessible electronically at the following website: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=mboc4.TOC&depth=10.
In addition, you will be assigned various papers (both original articles and reviews) to read. Links to these papers will be placed in the course folder in Learn.

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Ashley Garrill

Lecturers

Renwick Dobson and Christoph Goebl

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Final Exam 60%
Class presentations 15%
Review article 31 May 2021 25% Proposal submitted by 15 March 2021

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,066.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Biological Sciences .

All BIOL463 Occurrences

  • BIOL463-21S1 (C) Semester One 2021