2021-2022 MCB Area of Interest Course Information
Developmental Biology, Stem Cells & Aging
Please check the University of Washington Time Schedule for the most updated course information.
FOUNDATIONAL COURSES
Foundational Course One:
Course Number: CONJ 542
Course Title: Cell Biology of Development
Instructor (s): Dave Raible, Celeste Berg
Location (e.g. UW, FH, SLU): UW
Credits: 3
Quarter, Weeks, and Frequency course is offered: Autumn, weeks 1-10, even years
Attributes (e.g., graded, lecture-based): lecture and literature review
Sub Area (if applicable): Development
Synopsis: The course will focus on four topics that reveal how molecular processes within
individual cells are coordinated across tissues to build structures. The instructors will introduce
each topic through an explanatory lecture and then devote four sessions to the discussion of key
papers in the field. The topics are:
1. How cytoskeletal and motor proteins create tensile forces that change cell shapes and
alter tissue structures
2. How apical-basal polarity within cells contributes to the establishment and maintenance
of tissue architecture
3. How differential adhesion facilitates construction of tissue types and the movement of
cells within and through tissue layers
4. How these cell biological characteristics combine to influence tissue morphogenesis
Foundational Course Two:
Course Number: MCB 522
Course Title: The Developmental Basis of Human Disease
Instructor (s): Cecilia Moens
Location: FH
Credits: 3.0
Quarter, Weeks, and Frequency course is offered: Autumn, weeks 1-10, odd years
Attributes: lecture and literature review
Sub Area (if applicable): Development
Synopsis: Rapid advances in human genetics have identified a host of new genes associated with
rare human genetic disorders. In many cases, the functions of these genes have already been
elucidated by developmental and cell biologists working in non-human model systems. This
ten-week course will explore the intimate relationship between developmental biology and
human disease, including both inherited genetic disorders and cancer. Each week we will choose
a different human disorder whose underlying genetic cause has been discovered. We will then
discuss how the causal gene or genetic pathway controls normal animal development. The
second meeting of each week will be an opportunity for students to present papers from the
literature to uncover specific mechanistic links between normal developmental gene functions
and disease.
Foundational Course Three:
Course Number: CONJ 530
Updated Sept. 2021
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