Molecular Genetics
Time: October-January, Thursdays 10:40-12:20
Our understanding of genomes and genes have achieved a tremendous progress. At the same time, there are an increasing number of phenomena discovered that does not fit into traditional Mendelian genetics, such as epigenetics and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. I will introduce you some of the exciting discoveries of gene duplications, transposons, genome rearrangements, transcription regulation, chromatine, epigenetics and genome editing so as to understand the complexity of life from the molecular point of view. In the latter half of the lecture, students will try to read digests of the most recent articles and practice how to criticize science.
Molecular Genetics (Practical course)
Time: April – May 13:20-17:00
Advance of sequencing technology and computational analysis have facilitated our understanding of how genome behaves. Student will learn how to analyze large scale transcriptome datasets using cluster computer. In the latter half of demonstration, students will also test their results of computational analysis using PCR.
Ecological development and evolution (for graduate students)
Time: October to January, Wednesdays 15:00-17:00
Study of the impact of environment in development and evolution requires an integration of different disciplines, such as molecular genetics, developmental biology, physiology, systems biology and evolutionary biology hence recent studies involves complex analysis. This class aim to improve biological understanding of complex analysis of oroginal articles and become capable of giving scientific criticisms.
Ecological development and evolution (for graduate students)
Time: October to January, Thursdays 15:00-18:00
There is an increasing awareness in the impact of environment on organismal development and evolution. Darwin famously noted the potential importance of environmental impact on the origin of variation. Since then, a number of scientists developed various concept that explains the link between environment and evolution. For example, Standfuss and Goldschmidt noted phenocpy and penetrance, Waddington produced the idea of genetic assimilation, and Mary Jane West-Eberhard proposed phenotypic accommodation in the origin and transition of novel phenotypes in changing environment. However, there is still not enough evidence to connect these idea to evolution, which provoked a discussion of “Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES)” in the recent years. We will discuss how we can test these ideas using the up-to-date technologies, after learning various previous discussion in this field.
Liberal Arts: Understanding Science from Newspapers
Time:3-4th semesters Thursdays, 10:40-12:20
This is an omnibus lecture series of how to read scientific articles on newspapers. On my lectures, students will choose articles on environmental issues, climate change, and genome editing, and lean how to understand a data from different perspectives and how to disseminate to others.
Organismal Environmental Response
Time:3-4 semester, venu will be announced in October
Organisms are living in ever changing environment. How organisms perceive and respond to environment? On my lecture I will introduce you recent amazing discoveries of stress response of genomes and epigenomes, and how it might affect evolutionary processes.
生物学特殊講義 IV (Winter Semester, closes in 2018)
「Science Discussion in Molecular biology」
“Science is a growing system of problems” (by Karl Popper). Science is an important method of solving problems, which is also helpful even outside academic research. You are expected to experience the meaning of this Popper’s word, through solving problems in life science from different perspectives (e.g., molecular biology, applied science in solving social problems, scientific communications). The aim is to develop skills in discussing research article in English, building up new ideas through scientific discussion within a team, and presenting ideas in words intelligible to layperson.
グローバル理工学実習 (Summers)
It is part of demonstration that Leading Graduate Promotion Center organizes. The major aim of this demonstration is to provide an opportunity to learn basic experimental methods in molecular biology with state-of-art facilities in the field different from your own major, but any students (undergraduate students and graduate students of any department) are welcome. Students will lean basic techniques of amplifying targeted DNA sequences using PCR. Every year it provides an excellent opportunity for students to interact with others from different majors.