Achievement

The Challenge Project is in its third year as part of our revised curriculum. It consists of a two-semester project where first year students, in small teams, conduct research with high throughput data on open-ended problems proposed by biology and medical school faculty. Students work with limited supervision so they can generate their own ideas and approaches. Students make functional predictions, develop computational tools, write progress reports, design validation experiments, and present their findings at our Systems Biology seminar. Teams meet weekly with the course supervisor and faculty mentors. Teams this year were mentored by 1) Cynthia Bradham (Bio): Gene Expression Profiles during Embryonic Development, 2) Salomon Amar (Oral Bio): Systematic analysis of relationship between obesity and periodontal disease, 3) Joseph Zaia (Biochem): Bioinformatics for Glycomics, 4) John Connor (Microbio): Identifying common and unique responses to infection with Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses.