BIOLOGY 4110: Introduction to Microbial Physiology

            Microbes are models for the understanding of general biological phenomena, such as metabolism and biochemistry; protein, nucleic acid and lipid synthesis; energy generation, enzyme regulation, membrane transport, motility, differentiation, cellular communication and the behavior of populations – we will consider many of these topics.  A surprising amount of our knowledge of life has come from studies of microbes.  For the purposes of this course, microbial physiology is the study of the life processes of bacteria.  When a bacterium divides, it produces (usually) an identical copy of itself.  Every molecule and structure in the original cell therefore needs to be synthesized before this can happen.

             Largely we will be studying processes as they occur in the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli although other species will be considered.  Some of the biochemistry we will cover applies to higher organisms as well as bacteria including sugar catabolism, energy production and macromolecular biosynthesis.  Some processes we will learn about occur only in bacteria and only in a limited number of species under certain environmental conditions.  We will come to appreciate bacterial genetics and learn some very straightforward but powerful approaches to understand the function of bacterial genes.  Since some of you may aspire to attend medical/dental/vet schools, special emphasis will be placed upon biomedical applications such as targets of antibiotics and mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis.

Biology 4215: Molecular Biology of Bacterial Diseases

There is currently a great deal of interest in bacterial pathogenesis.  Reemerging pathogens and bacteria that have acquired resistance to our current arsenal of antibiotics are causing a great deal of concern among the biomedical community and among the public at large.  Biological warfare is currently of great concern.  We are learning that in addition to acute infections caused by bacteria (with symptoms that include diarrhea, fever, sore throat, etc), chronic conditions such as ulcers, certain cancers, atherosclerosis and other conditions may be caused by bacterial infections that can avoid and manipulate the host immune system. 

 An enormous amount of research is currently directed at discovering and understanding human bacterial pathogens.  Hundreds of bacterial genomes are now publicly available.  The tools of molecular biology and drug discovery are very sophisticated and we learn more every day.  However, the ability of bacteria to adapt to the hostile ecological niches in our bodies is awesome.  In this course, we will learn about and discuss some of the many strategies that pathogenic bacteria use to invade and prosper within the human body.  This research has direct and immediate implications to human health as it aids in the development of new therapeutic options.