Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

20.106J/1.084J: Systems Microbiology

Microbiology from a systems perspective.

Prerequisites

5.111, 5.112 or 3.091; 7.012, 7.013, or 7.014

Course Textbook

Buy at Amazon Madigan, Michael, and John Martinko. Brock Biology of Microorganisms. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. ISBN: 9780131443297.

Grading

ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGE
Problem Sets (~1 every 2 weeks) 25%
Midterm I 20%
Midterm II 20%
Final Exam 35%

Calendar

Lec # TOPICS LECTURERS KEY DATES
1 Early Earth/Microbial Evolution Prof. Ed DeLong
2 Cell Structure/Function Prof. Ed DeLong Problem set 1 out
3 Biological Energy Conservation Prof. Ed DeLong
4 Microbial Growth Prof. David Schauer Problem set 1 due
5 Metabolic Regulation Prof. Ed DeLong Problem set 2 out
6 Virology Prof. David Schauer
7 Information Flow in Biological Systems Prof. Ed DeLong Problem set 2 due
Midterm I
8 Regulation of Cell Activity Prof. Ed DeLong Problem set 3 out
9 Genetic Exchange in Bacteria Prof. Ed DeLong
10 Experimental Evolution: Optimization of Metabolic Systems Guest Lecturer, Prof. Christopher Marx from Harvard Problem set 3 due
11 Genomics I Prof. Ed DeLong
12 Genomics II Prof. Ed DeLong Problem set 4 out
13 Metabolic Diversity I Prof. Ed DeLong
14 Metabolic Diversity II Prof. Ed DeLong
15 Microbial Ecology Prof. Ed DeLong Problem set 4 due
Midterm II
16 Microbial Growth Control Prof. David Schauer Problem set 5 out
17 Microbe-host Interactions Prof. David Schauer
18 Immunology I Megan McBee
19 Immunology II Megan McBee Problem set 5 due
20 Diagnostic Microbiology Prof. David Schauer Problem set 6 out
21 Person-to-person Transmission Prof. David Schauer
22 Epidemiology Megan McBee Problem set 6 due
23 Animal- and Arthropod-transmitted Diseases Prof. David Schauer
24 Review Prof. David Schauer
Final Exam