Recent Advances in Microbiology (VTMC 830.3) Course Administrator: Dr. Volker Gerdts Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) Tel: 306-­‐966-­‐1513 or 306-­‐966-­‐1526 Course Administrator: Dr. Andrew Potter Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) Tel: 306-­‐966-­‐7484 A requisite for students in Veterinary Microbiology. Partly tutorial, but also consisting of assigned reviews of recent advances in selected areas of microbiology, including bacteriology, epidemiology, immunology, parasitology and virology. Discussions are student-­‐driven and facilitated by individual faculty members with expertise in the areas of discussion. Training is also given in the interpretation of published scientific reports and in the writing of grant applications. A major part of the course comprises each student writing a full-­‐scale, mock CIHR application addressing their proposed dissertation research. OBJECTIVES: • To expose students to different areas of Microbiology. • To coach students to read critically the literature, design experiments and assemble a research grant application. • To enable students to fulfil two of the three departmental criteria for students wishing to transfer from MSc to PhD programs (i.e., their research proposal being written up as a full-­‐scale CIHR-­‐like research grant application, and taking a qualifying exam). COURSE STRUCTURE: The course is made up of the following components: • Modules: Co-­‐ordinated by faculty and cover a sub-­‐discipline of Microbiology. Example of a module: The Trial of the Century! Is Chlamydia pneumoniae guilty of causing heart disease? The class will review Paul Ewald’s book, Plague Time: The New Germ Theory of Disease. Ewald’s thesis is that infectious agents are responsible for many diseases that have long been thought to have non-­‐infectious causes. We will stage a mock trial charging Chlamydia pneumoniae with causing heart disease. Some of the students in the class will form the prosecuting team while the rest will defend the organism from the charge. All arguments must be based on published evidence. A jury, made up of students and instructors will decide if the organism is guilty. • Research Grant Application and Adjudication: In the grant writing portion of the class, you will draw up a full-­‐scale Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) operating grant application for your own thesis research. This will include the three 'modules' required in CIHR applications (i.e., curriculum vitae, research proposal, and budget module), filled out partially on-­‐line and partially as 'add-­‐in' sections, as per CIHR guidelines (http://www.cihr.ca). The research proposal 'insert' must fill 10 pages (not including figures, tables, or references), must include an overview, hypotheses, objectives, a very detailed literature review, a very detailed outline of your proposed experimental rationale and methods, a time-­‐line for completion of the proposed work, and a statement of how this work will add to our overall knowledge in your area of expertise. You may not access your supervisor's or other laboratory personnel's prior-­‐grant applications as aids. Three hard copies of your completed application will be due by the end of the departmental secretary's (Ms. Pat Thompson) working day on Friday, March 28, 2003; confirmation of acceptance will be by the signature of Ms. Thompson. No late applications will be accepted. Two students (internal reviewers) and one external reviewer, will review each grant using the criteria (excepting prior progress) normally employed in reviewing professional CIHR applications. Keep a copy of your grant for yourself, since the submitted copies may not be returned to you. On March 31 and April 4 the internal reviewers will present their reviews to the “selection committee,” made up of all students in the class and the instructors. The applicant, who will also be a member of the committee, will then be asked to leave the room while the committee “votes” on whether to fund the application (assign a grade). • Final Examination: The final examination for the course will cover all aspects of the course. For one component of the examination you will be given an article on an aspect of Microbiology. You will be asked to read the article, prepare a summary and discussion of the article and design a series of experiments to address some of the issues raised in the article. The time limit for the exercise will be five hours. The examination will have an “open book” format. You will be encouraged to make extensive use of computer assisted literature searches, bioinformatics, etc.