BIOMG 4880

Cancer Biology and Metabolism

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

Cancer is a global health problem often associated with high mortality due to therapeutic resistance. Metastasis, uncontrolled growth, metabolic reprogramming and oncogenic alterations are major features of most cancers and contribute to poor survival outcome in patients. Late diagnosis, cancer disparity and limited understanding of how cancers arise are also problems. We are in a modern era of multi-omics technologies including genomics, proteomics, epigenetics, and metabolomics, which are enabling unprecedented insights into the biology of cancer. This course will provide an overview on the fundamentals of cancer biology such as cancer hallmarks, signal transduction, genetics/gene mutations, therapeutic concepts such as synthetic lethality, cancer models, research methods and data analytical tools. Further, the course will introduce metabolism and metabolomics techniques.

When Offered Spring.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite or corequisite: BIOMG 2800, BIOMG 3300, BIOMG 3310, BIOMG 3320 or BIOMG 3350.

Distribution Category (BIO-AS) (OPHLS-AG)

• Explain the basic pathways and genes that lead to the development of cancer.
• Describe the various factors and complexity of genetic mutations in cancer.
• Be able to interpret genomic data and graphs relating to cancer mutations and cancer biology.
• Be able to read, understand, critically evaluate and summarize primary literature in cancer genetics and genomics.
• Articulate a research plan based on cancer genetics and genomics techniques and knowledge.

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