BIOS911

Author's preface: Last year I prepared and conducted a short course in molecular and microbiology for one of my young colleagues who was interested in furthering her post graduate education with a specific focus on rapid diagnostic methods in food pathogen detection. I had a lot of fun with the course and even prepared a syllabus which I am publishing below. It is a bit different from what you might remembe from school, as of course, I had to put my own twist on the boring old college syllabus. BTW, you can still enjoy this even if most of what I said above was Greek to you. Unlike the actual course there are no prerequisites and anyone can read and enjoy the syllabu, even if you don't understand hardly any of it. I did have to redact some parts to protect both mine and my employers privacy and protect against any potential unintentional revelation of confidential material, but it was very minimal. Where that has been done it is indicated in the body.

BIOS-911 -Applied Molecular/Micro Biology for the (Redacted) R&D Scientist

Semester: Spring 2022

COURSE OVERVIEW

This is a ten week no-credit-hour course consisting of five sections. Each section will consist of one to three weeks (45min-1h classes, twice weekly) of lecture/discussion and a single open book pass/fail exam. Section I is the lone exception which does not have an no exam but there is one pass/fail assignment. Students will learn(ish)* the following basic concepts in applied molecular and microbiology:

*Note: No guarantee of student learning is provided. The concepts to be “learned” may vary from what is shown in this syllabus.

CLASS TIME AND PLACE

Lecture/discussion: 12:30pm – 1:30pm EST Monday and Wednesday at (redacted). Teams meetings may be set up for certain lectures/discussions if there is interest.

INSTRUCTOR

Prof. Daniel DeMarco, Ph.D. [email protected]

(redacted) (redacted)

*Dr. DeMarco’s office is located on the (redacted). Upon arrival to the (redacted) follow the noise and distraction until you reach its epicenter. That will be Prof DeMarco’s shared office. If he is not in you may leave a message with any of his many officemates or co-workers that congregate and speak loudly near his desk at all times.

COURSE PHILOSOPHY

As befitting a prestigious elite institution of higher learning like Eurofins Microbiology Università (EMU) in the world renown Grandes école di DeMarco (GED), in (redacted) each course has a philosophy. The one exception is PHIL700, the lone philosophy course offered at EMU-GED, which, ironically, does not have any philosophy at all. BIOS911, the only molecular/microbiology post, post graduate class currently offered at the school has a very detailed and complicated philosophy, which you will be forced to read and hear about endlessly over the next six months to a year. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with concepts and experimental approaches in a wide range of applied molecular and microbiology applications that are currently, or may become useful in the (redacted) R&D laboratory environment. There will be a heavy focus on technologies useful in food pathogen diagnostics and characterization but course subject matter is wide ranging. It will also include critical review and analysis of basic molecular biology tenets, including discussion of the origins of life on earth and evolutionary theory. Students should come to the course with a high degree of competence in reading, understanding, evaluating, and applying the research literature, and will build upon that competence. Students should complete the course with a near expert level understanding of many topics in biochemistry and molecular biology, and life in general. They should be able to apply this knowledge creatively and realistically to propose novel and plausible solutions to current problems in the (redacted) research lab and/or to past, present, or potential future problems that could arise in all aspects of their daily lives, and/or the lives of their friends and families. This course is a mixture of at desk discussions and reading, lots and lots of reading, adjusted at the discretion of the instructor. Current “hot topics” will be incorporated into the material when possible, and periodically topics that are no longer cool or fashionable will be picked on mercilessly, beaten up, and sent home crying to their moms like the big babies they are. Importantly, the course should be highly interactive, evergreen, and ever changing. Students are highly encouraged to bring their own ideas of topics they would like to learn more about. There will be serious consideration of all suggestions for improvements and implementation of them will occur immediately if they have merit.

MEMORIZATION

Prof. DeMarco firmly believes that intentional rote memorization is a waste of both your, and more importantly, his time. You will not be asked or expected to commit anything to memory in this course. If he has done his job, the concepts and facts you need to know will be remembered naturally through understanding and usage. If you find yourself needing to reach for a textbook or searching the internet repeatedly to look up something, by all means do it, but please let Prof. DeMarco know about it. It suggest a fundamental weakness in the design of the course and he will need to address for the future.

TEXTBOOK

Lewin’s Essential Genes

Authors: Krebs, Goldstein, Kilpatrick, 4th edition, 2021

Note: The textbook for this course will be provided to students free of charge thanks to the largess of (redacted) and a grant from the Chubb group. Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company and the largest commercial insurer in the United States. Chubb combines the precision of craftsmanship with deep experience to conceive, craft and deliver the very best insurance coverage and service. Brought to you by the good people of the Chubb group. You can’t spell chubby without Chubb. This is an excellent molecular biology reference that is worth having on your desk, unless you have a tiny desk like I do in which case it would probably be better on your bookshelf. Your backpack or briefcase is another possibility. This book provides a basic foundation in each area, and is an excellent reference for students needing background on various topics. In general, lectures and discussions will not cover the material contained in the text, but will assume that you have read and mastered that material. In certain instances, the Professor may have forgotten much about the material. In those cases, he expects that the students cut him some slack and help bring him up to speed as it has been a long time since he has been in school. In general, this course strives to go further than any textbook, relying on journal publications, the vast real world experience and knowledge, inherent charm, world class intellect, and fully in check ego of Professor DeMarco, for a majority of the information.

ADDITIONAL SOURCES

As you encounter methods and/or concepts that are new or unclear to you (and you will), additional resources should be consulted freely, unless of course they are not free resources, in which case you will need to pay for them and they should not be consulted freely as that would be considered stealing. As you encounter resources that need to be paid for, you should use your P-card freely to do so. (Note: pre approval from Prof. DeMarco is required prior to spending any money on course materials.)

EXAMINATIONS AND GRADING

This course has four examinations and there are only two grades available, pass or fail. Determination of passing/failing performance is the sole purview of Professor DeMarco. You may consider his stature God-like if it helps you come to terms with the massive power he wields over your passing or failure of this course. However, unlike God Professor DeMarco does not answer prayers, but he does accept bribes. If you successfully pass the exams and the course you will be awarded a highly prized (redacted)-GED degree. Previous (redacted)-GED holders have gone on to rewarding careers in such diverse fields as fast food drive through service specialists and rest stop bathroom cleaning technologists.

ADVISORY WARNING

Professor DeMarco has a short attention span and can become easily distracted. He also uses a non conventional method of organization that can appear chaotic or haphazard to others. Because of this you may will become frustrated with him at some many points throughout the course. Students are highly encouraged to be as self directed and self motivated as possible. He is not your dad/mom/brother/sister/babysitter/aunt or uncle and he expects that you will keep up with the various reading and other assignments without much fuss or ado. He is also not your friend, unless you want him to be, in which case, he will be your friend, but this friendship will not impact his judgement with respect to your success/failure in this course which will be solely based on your performance in mastering the subject matter or the size of your bribe.

*Note: Dr. DeMarco does not take bribes, but he thought it would be funny to suggest he might. Bribery is not however, funny, and is in fact a crime. Do not even try. That said if you want to try, he only accepts cash, small denomination U S dollars, with non sequential serial numbers. Personal favors, foreign currency, stocks/bonds/mutual funds will not be considered. Lol!