The grading for this class will be based on participation during presentations and discussions, as well as on the following two assignments:
Mid-term Assignment
Due during Ses #10
This assignment will consist of writing an abstract for a research article. Students will be given a part of a research article (results, materials and methods and the figures). With these core parts of the research article, each student should write a comprehensive 250-word abstract that summarizes the results of the key experiments and the main conclusions. The abstract should aim to put the specific findings in a more general perspective, as well.
Final Assignment
Due during Ses #15
For the final presentations each student will be assigned a research article that describes the function of a critical checkpoint protein related to a human disease. Students will discuss the key figures and summarize the molecular functions of the protein described in the paper. Furthermore, the students will briefly discuss the function of this protein within the global DNA damage network that was discussed throughout the course. Lastly, the students will be asked to explain the clinical features of the related human disease (mentioned in the research article), based on the molecular details that were described in the paper. The presentations are scheduled for 15 minutes (10 minutes talk [7-8 PowerPoint slides], followed by a 5 minutes discussion). The presentation will be given to the entire group. Students will be encouraged to actively participate in the discussion following each presentation.