Renée Schroeder and Tanja Gesell teaching molecular biology based on their introduction lecture Biomolecular Strategies at the winter semester.

The course has three cornerstones: lectures, exercises, and a symposium.

Lecture: This semester the lecture is starting with the questions such as what is a DNA? Students will learn more about DNA structure, genes, and genomes. The students will understand fundamental DNA assignments including genes, mutations, and diseases. From there we include topics such as replication and transcription, RNA, translation, the genetic code and proteins. Finally, visualizations both from an artistic point of view as well as from an engineering viewpoint will be discussed with respect to current and fascinating challenges in molecular biology.

Exercises: On the one side students will build a DNA double helix and on the other side students have computational exercises such as folding RNAs in silico, browsing through the human genome and learning basics of statistic and programming using the software package R.

Student Symposium: A student symposium aims discussions with the students about current challenges in molecular biology on the basis of different papers presented by the students. Each student will present a paper in 15min plus discussion. The selection of the paper for the student symposium will be discussed with the students during and individually after the lectures and exercises.

The grade will depend on the quality and clarity of the presentation(s) and the contributions to the discussions during the semester (60%) and the result of the written exam at the midterm of the semester (40%). Attendance at the lecture is not mandatory but recommended.

Students from other study programs or other universities are welcome provided the room capacity permits.