7.89/CSB.100  Topics in Comp & Sys Biology

Dear CSB.100/7.89 students,

Thanks for a great semester.

A couple of you have already completed online evaluations at  http://web.mit.edu/subjectevaluation -
thanks!

For the rest of you, please try and find a few minutes to complete the evaluations, which
are very helpful to me, to other students who are considering taking the course next year, etc.
I want to hear from all of you.
If you have any specific comments about guest instructors, please include those as well.

The deadline in Monday, Dec 17 at 9am.

Good luck on finals!

Cheers,

Chris

Hi all,
We're doing something different for Week 11 (Friday Nov 30, after Thanksgiving):
In addition to the two regular papers (Elowitz & Leibler and Kornmann et al), you
will each be reading one additional paper.  The twist is that everyone will read a
different paper.   I have posted 11 papers under "Additional Synthetic Biology Papers"
on the course web site that represent different topics in / applications of synthetic biology,
and I used "random.org" to randomly assign one of these papers to each of you.  The assignments are:

Nezar  10 - Tigges et al
Amanda 2 - Cantone et al
Peter 6 - McMillen et al
Mariana 5 - Kramer et al
Sahin 1 - Auslander et al
Ali 4 - Chau et al
Colette 8 - Saeidi et al
Gabriela 7 - Mondragon et al
Nikita 11 - Win & Smolke
Vincent 3 - Chan et al
Lyndon 9 - Tabor et al

If Nezar and Nikita want to, we can briefly discuss some of these papers as well as the two that you will all read.
There is also a writing assignment related to your specifically assigned paper, which is to write a 1-2 page double-spaced essay addressing the following questions:
1) What big question in synthetic biology is the research directed towards? (e.g., programming viruses to fight cancer)
2) What was the specific challenge that the authors set for themselves in the paper? (e.g., introducing a 3-gene network into Adenovirus and testing whether it behaves as predicted).
3) To what extent does achieving this specific challenge advance the field towards addressing the big question or toward other worthwhile ends?  Are the authors focusing on the most pressing issues?  Why/why not?
The assignment will be due at the start of class on Nov 30.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Cheers,

Chris

Dear students,
As indicated previously, the assignment due this Friday is to write an improved version of the NSF PPR proposal that you turned in Oct 19th.  You may use the written comments I provided on your initial version, comments from others (including fellow students, postdocs, writing instructors, etc.) or information you have gathered in other ways.  All writing must be original.  As before, you must follow the NSF formatting guidelines precisely, and you should turn in both a single-spaced 2-page version and a double-spaced version for me to mark up.
As usual, the assignment is due in hard copy form at the beginning of class.
Cheers,
Chris

Hi All,
I finished grading your proposals and they are available
for pickup in 68-271 (in a bin to the left as you come in,
under the Paris street map).
Cheers,
Chris

Hello CSB.100/7.89 students,

As I mentioned in class, the topic for the final week has not yet been set
because I wanted to get the class's input on what you'd like to discuss.
I have identified two topics that might be of interest: A) Cancer Genomics,
and B) Human Metagenomics, and have identified two papers in each
area that look interesting.  I've posted these under Week 7 Option A and
Week 7 Option B on the course web site.  Please take a look and we can
discuss and perhaps vote on Friday in class.

Cheers,

Chris