Introduction to Systems Biology: multicellular organisms - 94964, and cell biology - 94641
This course is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students with little background in Biology and Math that would like to understand how can math be useful in understanding biological phenomena. Each course is given once every two years and involves a small project and a final exam.
94964 - multicellular organisms: We start with basic calculations on protein production, degradation and feedbacks, and then move to developmental biology, immunological regulation, tissue regeneration, endocrine signaling, circadian rhythms and metabolism. Maybe neuronal signaling if we have time.
94641 - cell biology: We start the same way, but then go on to study translation, bacterial chemotaxis, cell growth and division, quorum sensing and more, if we'll have the time.
Physiology of Organ Systems
Physiology tries to explain how stuff works, in our body. I teach in the gastrointestinal segment and endocrine segment of the course. We learn that the gastrointestinal tract is more than a sponge with some digestive enzymes. It is a smart and regenerative system composed of many organs and sub-systems, regulated by hormones and a couple of nervous systems, that together with our gastrointestinal microbes is able to digest and absorb a wide variety of food in a highly coordinated fashion.
In endocrinology, we study general principals of endocrine regulation such as negative and integral feedbacks, and focus on some systems such as calcium regulation, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, thyroid gland and energy homeostasis.