Semester:
Offered:
Co-hosted by the Harvard Microbial Sciences Initiative, the Massachusetts Host-Microbiome Center, and the Harvard Graduate Program in Bacteriology.
Course Overview:
Life on planet earth has been dominated by anaerobes, from the earliest forms of life to the complex microbial communities that comprise your internal gut microbiota. This nanocourse will introduce unique aspects of anaerobe physiology, including adaptions to thrive in anaerobic environments.
Course schedule:
The first two sessions are open to all who are interested and will include a mix of lecture and discussion. Participants outside of Harvard are welcome. The last two sessions will involve hands-on genomics workshops. Priority will be given to Harvard graduate students enrolling for credit, but others may participate if space allows.
Session 1 (Wed Jan 11, 2023 3:00 - 5:00 PM) - open to all registrants, hybrid:
- Anaerobe Life: Origins to Present Day
- Anaerobe Metabolism and Energy Balance
Session 2 (Friday Jan 13, 2023 3:00 - 5:00 PM) - open to all registrants, hybrid:
- Anaerobe Adaptions to Oxidative Stress
- Methods for Anaerobe Microbiologic, Genomic, and Metatranscriptomic analyses
Session 3 (Wednesday January 18, 2023 3:00 - 5:00 PM) and Session 4 (Friday January 20, 2023 3:00 - 5:00 PM) - open to selected registrants, capped at 8 people, hybrid:
- Session 3 and 4 participants will have a targetted exercise to evaluate an annotated anaerobe genome for oxidative stress response genes and multi-operon systems, including integration of these systems with key aspects of anaerobe metabolism and gene regulation. Participants will work on a 1-2 page write-up and 20 minute presentation to the group of findings and inferred or published data on their activation and roles within the cell and in colonized ecosystems.
Note: PhD students in DMS programs or the BPH program who complete all sessions can get course credit for this nanocourse. You can combine three nanocourses to receive one quarter course credit. Students in other programs should contact their program administrators to ask about receiving credit.
Location:
All sessions are planned to be held hybrid. Registerants will receive zoom links and meeting locations by email.
Target Audience and Prerequisites:
This course is designed for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Advanced undergraduate students or others are welcome if space allows. Participants should have taken an intro course on microbiology and microbial genetics and a biochemistry or other upper-level prokaryotic physiology course. Please contact the course coordinator if you have questions about this.
Course Team:
- Lynn Bry, MD, PhD (Course Director), Director, Massachusetts Host-Microbiome Center, Associate Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School
- Hannah Gavin, PhD (Course Coordinator), hgavin@fas.harvard.edu, Scientific Program Manager, Harvard Microbial Sciences Initiative
- Lauren Essler, PhD (Course Coordinator), lauren_essler@hms.harvard.edu, Curriculum Fellow, Harvard Graduate Program in Bacteriology
Register here by Monday, January 9. All participants must register in order to receive the course zoom link and materials. We will contact participants interested in taking the course for credit to confirm your place in the course or on the waitlist.