BB703 Course structure:

Introduction to research philosophy

Historical development of thoughts on Cancer: from genetics and metabolism

perspective. The genetic/metabolic/viral basis of cancer. Genetic basis of cancer
as a concept quickly captured the imagination of the scientific community. Thus,
the concept of tumor suppressor and oncogenes genes evolved.

Metabolic disturbance was observed in cancer cells. For example, excess glucose
and glutamine uptake by cancer cells. But the functional consequence of these
observation could not be linked to the autonomous growth potential of cancer
cells. The mitochondrial functionality was thought to be disturbed as was
hypothesised by Warburg. But this observation remained controversial as the
oxygen uptake of cancer cells did not show significant variation in cancer cells as
compared to normal cells. Therefore, there was a general consensus against the
metabolic theory of cancer. It was generally believed that cancer cannot be
considered as a metabolic disease while diabetes is a metabolic diseases. Only in
the last 15 years or so the metabolic basis of cancer has come to the forefront.

The focus of this course is to look at the genetic and metabolic basis of the rapid
proliferative property of the cancer cells. The theme is to learn the
aetiology/biology of cancer as much as to learn to do science objectively. Can
we understand the basis of cancer by looking at other organisms such as
microbes. Is the underlying basis of cells undergoing rapid proliferative process
fundamental biological design? Can we address this using other model systems?
The answer is yes. Yeast metabolism and genetics provides a great opportunity
to understand the metabolic basis of cancer.

There will be lectures till midsem- (30%)

Three assignments (15% + 20%+10%).

Final exam 20%

First assignament

Paper presentation:
After midsem- each student has to make 1 hr present of a paper. (15%)
Take a paper, preferably published after 2000.
Have approximately a maximum of fifteen slides. That is 4 minutes/slide
Do not clutter the slides with text.
Give sufficient background. At least two to three slides
Experiments-give sufficient details/interpretations

Second assignment

A project proposal: This should be different from the paper presentation.

 This is to be provided as a PDF with a declaration that it is the original idea
of the student. This will be taken through the software to detect plagiarism, if
any. If the content has above 20% copied material the student would get FF
grades. The last date for submission is March 31st.

Not more than three pages. 550 words/ page. Gives an idea of the content.

It should contain the following headings.

Origin of the proposal.

Questions to be addressed.

Approaches and expectations.

References and figures any, to be given at the end. This is not included in
three page limit. References should be not less than 10. Figures 2 to 3.

Third assignment:

Make an observation. This should be of phenomenological in nature.

Do some preliminary analysis, and make presentation of 15 minutes.

Consolidated Course List

Course BB 703 for academic year 2016 and semester 2

Roll
srno Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Number
1 130260007 BHOGALE SHOUNAK GIRISH
2 163300010 SANJUKTA SAIBAL BHATTACHARYA
3 164023002 Ankita Mishra
4 164023003 Rohit Joshi
5 164023005 Rohit P James
6 164023006 ANJALI MAHILKAR
7 164026004 Vaibhav Srivastava
8 164026011 Swati Madhu
9 164026012 MOMIN HUDA MEHMOOD
10 164300011 Rakesh K
11 164303006 DEEPTI SHARMA
12 164303007 DEEPIKA TRAKROO
13 164303009 VISHI SHARMA
14 164303010 Sukhjeet Kaur
15 164303013 MD MEHEDI HOSSAIN
16 164309001 APTE SHRUTI SHARAD