Molecular Foundations of Medicine

The course consists of four sections, in a suggested order that is by no means required. For example, a news report may stimulate you to learn about CRISPR. If so, please feel free to skip to the “Molecular Techniques” tab, and go to the “CRISPR and Genome Editing” sub-tab. Some videos are best studied in sequence. Such videos appear as a single tab. For example, in the “Reading the Primary Literature” tab, a sub-tab labeled “Kaplan Meier” actually consists of two related videos, “Kaplan Meier Curves 1: How to Draw Them” and “Kaplan Meier Curves 2: How to Read Them”.

This course contains selected topics that will help you understand applications of molecular biology in medicine. We hope the course will bridge the gap between press reports and the medical literature. This is NOT a comprehensive survey, but rather a focused look at a few key topics:

1. Reading the primary literature, including how to read a paper and how to understand Kaplan-Meier curves

2. Molecular techniques, including the polymerase chain reaction, gel electrophoresis of biological molecules, and genome editing by CRISPR technology

3. DNA recombination, including homologous recombination, V(D)J recombination, and retroviral integration

4. Genome expression, including how to measure and interpret gene expression profiles