Course # BMSC-GA 4457 Genome Integrity ( 4 credits)
NYU SoM Fall 2015
Course director: Jane Skok
Course Meeting time and location: The class will meet for 2 hours, 2 times a week for 13 weeks. Tues and
Thursday 5-7 in the Skirball 3 rd floor seminar room. Dates are listed below.
Course Description
The goal of this course is to provide graduate students with a broad base in fundamental principles of genome integrity while at the same time providing connections between genome integrity, organismal fitness, and human disease. The course will cover the following areas: (1) DNA metabolism including DNA replication, repair, transposition, and recombination, (2) epigenetic mechanisms that regulate genome function and influence development and disease, and (3) genotoxic stress (induced by radiation, oncogenes or other mechanisms) and its potential in cancer therapies.
Course Assessment
Participation
Exams
Grading scheme: Letter grade
25 %
75 %
Assignments: Students will be assigned a review and a primary paper for each topic.
Readings and participation: Students are required to attend class and to complete reading assignments.
Exam: There will be two in class exams, the first covering weeks 1- 6 and the second covering weeks 8-12.
Course Topics
Week 1. DNA Transposition (3 rd and 10 th Sept )
Transposition and retrotransoposition in eukaryotes
Genome defense against transposable elements
Week 2. DNA Replication (17 th and 24 th Sept)
Boeke
Lehmann
D. Smith
E. Nudler
Replication in Eukaryotes
Week 3. DNA damage (29 th Sept and 1 st October)
The interplay between DNA replication and other processes in bacteria
Sources of DNA damage (metabolic, replication, exogenous, telomere erosion)
Base excision repair, nucleotide repair, and mismatch repair
Week 4. Sensing, signaling, and responding to DNA damage (6 th and 8 th October)
DNA damage sensor proteins
Cell cycle checkpoints
E. Rothenberg
Borowiec
Huang
Pagano
Week 5. Double-strand break repair – 1 (13 th and 15 th October)
Homologous Recombination
Meiosis
Week 6. Double-strand break repair – 2 (20 th and 22 nd October)
Klein
Hochwagen

End-Joining pathways – Classical and Alternative
VDJ and Class Switch Recombination
Week 7. (27 th and 29 th October)
Exam
No class
Week 8. Epigenetics (3 rd and 5 th November)
Altered DNA methylation and genomic instability
Chromatin structure in eukaryotes
Week 9. Maintenance of mitochondrial genome (10 th and 12 th November)
Mitochondrial DNA replication and repair
Non-coding RNAs in Genome Integrity
Week 10. Human Disease (17 th and 19 th November)
Imprinting and X inactivation
Genome integrity and senescence
Week 11. Genotoxic Stress and anti-cancer strategies (24 th November and 1 st December)
Oncogene-induced stress
Radiation therapy
Week 12. Genotoxic Stress and anti-cancer strategies (3 rd December and 8 th December)
PARP inhibitors in cancer therapy
Week 13. (Exam 15 th December)
Centrosome structure, chromosome instability and cancer
No class
Exam
Steir
Skok
Tahiliani
Armache
Sfeir
Serganov
Stadtfeld
David
Bar-Sagi
Schneider
S. Smith
Dynlacht
Exams will consist of a mid-term and end of term final take home questions. Each team will be expected to generate a question that they will then grade (A-C).