Advances in Microbial Biotechnology

Credit Hour(s): 3 Units
Instructor(s): Ju
Offered:  Spring
Prerequisite(s): Grade of C- or above in MicrBio 4100; or BioChem 4511 or 5613; or PHR 3200
Role in Microbiology Major:  Group 1 Elective

Lecture Topics:

• Origins of modern biotechnology
• Foundation, mechanisms, and applications of recombinant DNA technologies
• Principles of genetic engineering and synthetic biology
• Applied genomics
• Applications of vaccines and antibodies
• Mechanisms and applications of industrial enzymes and biocatalysis
• Discovery and engineering of natural products
• Antibiotics, herbicides, and commodity chemicals
• Selected topics in chemical biology

Learning Outcomes:

Successful students will be able to...

• Knowledgeably describe historical origins of microbial biotechnology
• Understand commonly employed methods in microbial biotechnology
• Knowledgeably describe the origin, methods, and impact of genetic engineering and applications of genomics in biotechnology
• Understand the antibody function, engineering and applications
• Understand the application of microbial enzymes, and principles of biocatalysis and protein engineering
• Understand the application of microbes in the production of commodity chemicals
• Understand the role of microbial natural products, their discovery, and applications
• Understand the major discoveries and impacts of microbes in chemical biology
• Critically evaluate research papers, accurately interpret raw and processed data sets
• Identify key findings of research papers and explain them clearly to an audience of peers
• Identify strong arguments supported by conclusive data; identify weak arguments supported by inconclusive data
• Argue the merits and/or weaknesses of published work from a knowledgeable perspective