Tales from the Genome

This course is a journey into the biology of the human genome and will highlight the scientific, social, and personal perspectives of people living with a variety of traits.

• Origin of mutation/variation
• Types of mutations and various causes of mutation.,Allelic frequency, and the spread of alleles in a population.
• How to obtain and interpret personal genetic information
• Personalized genetics: sample acquisition, DNA extraction and processing.,Interpretation of results.
• Simple genetic traits
• Molecular causes of monogenic traits.,Loss-of-function vs. gain-of-function alleles, and dominance.
• Multifactorial traits
• Polygenic traits, qualitative and quantitative measures.,Twin studies, relative risk, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS).
• Pharmacogenetics: genes and drugs
• Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.,Alleles affecting drug metabolism.,Personalized medicine.
• Origin of mutation/variation
• Types of mutations and various causes of mutation.,Allelic frequency, and the spread of alleles in a population.
• How to obtain and interpret personal genetic information
• Personalized genetics: sample acquisition, DNA extraction and processing.,Interpretation of results.
• Simple genetic traits
• Molecular causes of monogenic traits.,Loss-of-function vs. gain-of-function alleles, and dominance.
• Multifactorial traits
• Polygenic traits, qualitative and quantitative measures.,Twin studies, relative risk, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS).
• Pharmacogenetics: genes and drugs
• Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.,Alleles affecting drug metabolism.,Personalized medicine.