Molecular Life Sciences Program

Nucleic acids are the genetic material of all forms of life, and their faithful duplication and maintenance ensures proper function and inheritance from one generation to the next. As such, complex highly regulated machinery has evolved to replicate DNA and RNA, as well as to repair replication errors and lesions from a multitude of sources. In this course, you will learn the fundamental mechanisms used by all domains of life for genome duplication and to maintain genome integrity. As an active area of research, this will include everything from classic biology to the cutting-edge experiments and techniques used today. We will also focus on disease states that occur when replication and repair are perturbed, either by mutation or exogenous factors.

Topics covered

• DNA structure and topology
• The cell cycle
• Helicases, polymerases, and sliding clamps
• Replication/transcription conflicts
• DNA damage
• DNA repair
• DNA recombination
• Evolution of replication and repair enzymes