Courses

Prerequisites: A strong background in molecular and cellular biology. Generally students with four or more courses are accepted. Cell Signaling is a graduate course for Ph.D. students open to advanced undergraduate and masters students. The basic molecular mechanism of signal transduction pathways will be discussed related to cell growth and stress systems. There will be an emphasis on specific categories of signaling components. Students will read the literature and give presentations. Topics include the pathways by which cells respond to extracellular signals such as growth factors and the mechanisms by which extracellular signals are translated into alterations in the cell cycle, morphology, differentiation state, and motility of the responding cells. For stress pathways we will discuss how cells respond to survive the stress or induce their own death. In many cases these pathways will be related to human diseases.