MCB 291: Genetics, Genomics, and Evolution

Instructors: Cassandra Extavour, Elena Kramer

Teaching Assistant: Frederike Alwes

Lectures: M 9:00 – 10:30, W 1:00 – 2:30

Discussion: F 9 – 10:30

This is a graduate student class that will provide an integrated introduction to the interface between genetics, genomics, and evolutionary biology. Our aim is to assume a minimum of background information and progress rapidly to a sophisticated level of understanding by focusing on a few examples rather than trying to provide a comprehensive view of a very large subject. The course will touch on Darwin/Wallace and Mendel in their historical contexts, discuss how to design, carry out and analyse genetic screens, cover the evolution of developmental processes, biological regulatory networks, and proteins, and discuss the choices of traditional, emerging, and future laboratory genetic model organisms.

Course iSite: http://my.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k63330

Download the course summary and lecture list here.

In 2010, this course will be taught by Cassandra Extavour and Andrew Murray.

OEB 51: The Biology and Evolution of Invertebrate Animals

Instructors: Gonzalo Giribet, Cassandra Extavour

Labs: W, 3:00 - 6:00

An introduction to invertebrate diversity. This course will emphasize the development, adult anatomy, biology and evolutionary relationships of the main animal phyla including sponges, mollusks, annelids and arthropods. Special emphasis is placed on understanding the similarities and differences in embryonic development, the broad diversity of animal forms and their adaptations to different ecosystems, and how these phenomena shape animal evolution. The aim of this course is to understand animal diversity from a phylogenetic perspective as well as from a developmental and functional morphology point of view, and to be able to put in context general concepts such as body layers, coeloms, ground patterns, and their roles in animal evolution. Lectures will be complemented with a mandatory weekly lab and a field trip to different areas of outstanding marine diversity in Panamá.

Course iSite: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k53461&pageid=icb.page234065

Download the course syllabus for 2010 here.

See pictures of the 2009 Panamá field trip here. The class went to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Bocas del Toro.

Read the feature article on student enthusiasm for the teaching of Profs. Extavour and Giribet in OEB51 here.

OEB 399: Topics in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

Coordinator: Colleen Cavanaugh

Instructors: Andrew Biewener, Stacey Combes, Edward O. Wilson, Bence Ölveczky, Cassandra Extavour, Arkhat Abzhanov, Scott Edwards, Noel Michele Holbrook, Jaques Dumais, Paul Moorcroft, Charles Davis, Charles Marshall, Brian Farrell, Pardis Sabeti, John Wakeley, Yun Zhang, James Hanken, David Haig, James McCarthy, Robert Woollacott, George Lauder, Karel Liem

Presents the research interests and experiences of scientists in organismic and evolutionary biology. Specific topics treated vary from year to year. Required of all first-year graduate students in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.

Download a schedule for the course here.

OEB 275r: Frontiers of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Instructors: Scott Edwards, Charles Marshall, Arkhat Abzhanov, Ann Pringle, Cassandra Extavour, Gonzalo Giribet, Chris Organ, Hopi Hoekstra, Marcus Kronforst, Chriz Marx, Kevin Foster, Paul Moorcroft, Brian Farrell

Lectures: M, W 1:30 – 3:00

A survey of the foundations and frontiers of ecology and evolutionary biology, delivered by OEB faculty. Topics covered in lectures and Professor-led sessions focused on paper discussions, debates or computational analysis of evolutionary data.

Course iSite: https://my.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=myharvard&subkeyword=k51344&tabgroupid=icb.k51344.tabgroup.top

Download the course syllabus for 2009 here.

iDB Nanocourse: Developmental Mechanisms of Evolutionary Change

Instructors: Arkhat Abzhanov, Elena Kramer, Cassandra Extavour

Are you curious about the old-new science of Evo-Devo? Do you wonder how a combination of two disciplines, evolutionary biology and developmental biology, can contribute to understanding the laws of Nature? This course will look at the way the mechanisms of development have been influenced by evolutionary forces and how understanding developmental genetics can help us understand evolutionary concepts. BBS nanocourses are intensive introductions to specific topics consisting of one three-hour lecture and a three-hour discussion one week later.

For a complete nanocourse schedule see http://idb.med.harvard.edu

Download the course announcement for 2009 here.