BME-Biomolecular Engineering

A first course in engineering design for bioengineers. In cooperation with the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). Students choose a design project and work on it in competitive and cooperative teams. Covers research, design, prototyping, and report writing.

Introduces analog electronics. Topics include circuit theory (Kirchhoff's laws, Thevenin equivalents); constant and sinusoidal signals; RC filters; op amps; feedback; oscillators; and instrumentation amplifiers. Emphasis is on design for sensors (thermistors, microphones, electrodes, pressure sensors, phototransistors); voltage dividers are a recurring theme. (Formerly Applied Circuits for Bioengineers.)

Twice weekly, three-hour laboratory to design and build circuits to interface sensors used in bioengineering (thermistors, microphones, electrodes, pressure sensors, phototransistors). Students design and build a one-lead electrocardiograph (EKG). (Formerly Applied Circuits Laboratory.)

Lecture course covering biotechnology-based approaches to diagnosis and treatment of disease. Areas covered include molecular diagnostics, microarray technology and pharmacogenomics, targeted therapies, gene therapy and cell and tissue engineering. Recent advances in each field presented.

Writing programs that use computer resources efficiently. Learn to measure resource usage and modify programs to get better performance. Particularly appropriate for programmers working at limits of their hardware (bioinformaticians, game programmers, and embedded system programs).

Basic teaching techniques for teaching assistants, including responsibilities and rights of teaching assistants, resource materials, computer security, leading discussion or lab sessions, presentation techniques, maintaining class records, electronic handling of homework, and grading. Examines research and professional training, including use of library and online databases, technical typesetting, writing journal and conference papers, publishing in bioinformatics, giving talks in seminars and conferences, and ethical issues in science and engineering. Required for all teaching assistants.

Covers the genetics of antibody formation and the histories of immunology and genetics. Students read and analyze seminal papers on antibody genetics.

Students will assemble and annotate the banana slug genome (Ariolimax dolichophallus) from next-generation sequencing data. Students also will explore the capabilities of the latest next-generation bioinformatics tools and write their own as needed.

Weekly seminar series covering topics of current computational and experimental research in protein structure prediction. Current research work and literature in this area discussed. Students lead some discussions and participate in all meetings.