[bioundgrd] FW: 7.342 Fall Seminar Course - How to Build an Animal

[Joshua Stone]

Date: Monday, August 28, 2017 at 9:16 AM
Subject: Fwd: 7.342 Fall Seminar Course - How to Build an Animal


Link to our Stellar site: https://learning-modules.mit.edu/class/index.html?uuid=/course/7/fa17/7.342#info

7.342 How To Build An Animal: Cell Fate and Identity in Development and Disease
Instructors: Laura Blanton (lblanton at wi.mit.edu<mailto:lblanton at wi.mit.edu>, 617-258-5174; laboratory of David Page)
     Andrew Knutson (aknutson at wi.mit.edu<mailto:aknutson at wi.mit.edu>, 617-258-5174; laboratory of David Page)
Fall 2017. Wednesdays, 11 am - 1 pm. (Class day and time are flexible.) Room 68-150.

Course Description
Multicellular organisms develop from single cells that form as a result of fusion between two haploid gametes, e.g., sperm and egg. The fertilized egg, known as a zygote, undergoes a series of dynamic developmental events to give rise to a multitude of cell types, such as neuronal cells in the brain and central nervous system and hematopoietic cells that generate the immune system. Understanding how these different cell types, each with their own unique functions, are generated from the totipotent zygote is a major goal of research in the fields of developmental biology and biomedicine. Because most cells within a given organism contain the same genetic information regardless of differentiated state, cell identity is manifested through a number of molecular mechanisms that influence cellular behavior and function without altering DNA sequence. In this course, we will explore how animals determine and maintain cell fate and discuss changes to DNA structure and packaging, special proteins (known as “master regulators”) with the ability to alter cell fate via transcription, cell-cell signaling, and RNA localization. We will examine how researchers have defined cell identity and potency and analyze critical papers describing the discovery and characterization of stem cells, which are undifferentiated cells able to give rise to multiple cell types. Additionally, we will examine the development and maintenance of numerous specialized cell types considering, for example, evolutionarily conserved developmental pathways that lead to a germ cell (sperm or egg) identity as opposed to a somatic (non-germ) cell identity in a variety of animal species. We will discuss crucial somatic developmental pathways, including the restriction of cell fate in differentiating hematopoietic lineages. We will conclude by examining how failure to maintain proper cell fate and identity can lead to disease and consider disorders of sexual development as well as a number of cancers.


Thank you so much!

Best,
Laura Blanton



--
Laura V. Blanton, Ph.D.
Laboratory of David Page
Whitehead Institute
455 Main Street
Cambridge, MA 02142

email: lblanton at wi.mit.edu<mailto:lblanton at wi.mit.edu>
lab phone: 617-258-5174


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