 This class is an exploration of molecular genetics. Now molecular genetics is an umbrella term for many different topics. In our class, we're going to explore things like viruses. We're going to look at the cell cycle and cancer. And before we get into those types of topics, we first have to identify what it is that controls the replication events of things like cancer, of things like viral infections. So we'll be looking at DNA replication. And we'll look at how in the lab we can exploit DNA replication in events such as, or in experiments such as PCR and sequencing. We'll look at DNA and how it is expressed in a cell in order to make us who we are. And we'll tease apart the mechanism of gene expression from how DNA makes RNA through the central dogma and how RNA makes protein. These are processes known as transcription and translation. Transcription of RNA, translation of protein. We'll also look how genes are regulated in a cell. And we will compare and contrast how gene regulation differs in bacterial cells versus multicellular organisms. We'll look at how we can take molecular mechanisms and exploit them in the lab for our purposes of building recombinant DNA. And we'll look how in research recombinant DNA technology has impacted and influenced technology. We'll look at how we can clone. We'll look how we can make genetically modified organisms for the purpose of both agricultural and research. Mainly in terms of medical advancements. We'll also look at DNA sequences and how we can take these sequence and analyze them in the terms of bioinformatics in order to help understand their role in a cell and their role in an organism. And we'll do all of this in a semester.