Molecular Biology is a branch of biology that studies the molecular basis of biological activity in any organism. It is the study of life at a molecular level. It is the field of science that is concerned with chemical structures and a variety of biological processes that includes the basic units of life i.e., nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and proteins. It also helps us to understand the interaction between these essential macromolecules at the cellular level. A molecular biologist studies how molecules interact with one another in living organisms to perform the functions of life.

BioCode is offering a Molecular Biology MasterClass course which will help you learn the underlying concepts of molecular biology and provide you with the knowledge of how biological data is generated such as genomics, transcriptomics, and even regulatory DNA dataset and the practical applications of bioinformatics that can be beneficial for you and your research career. By the end of this course, you will have a greater understanding of Molecular Biology, how, why, when, and which molecular biology concepts work.

This course is for absolute beginners in Molecular Biology and you don’t require any prior knowledge of Molecular Biology or even biology to get started with this course. This course will also provide you with a great foundation and understanding of bioinformatics data analysis because you will gain insights into cellular biology, DNA replication, protein structures, and their characteristics, biological data generation, and many other concepts of molecular biology.

This course will include the following sections:

Section 1: Basics of Cellular Biology

Description: This section will focus on making sure that the students learn about the basic concepts of cellular biology and the different elements comprising a cell.

Learning Outcomes:  Upon completion of this section, students will be able to:

1. Understand the Structure and Features of a Cell.
2. Discuss DNA and its Importance,
3. Describe Nucleotides.
4. Explain Types of RNA.
5. Describe Nucleotide Codons.
6. Discuss Amino Acids and Enzymes.
7. Explain the Biochemical Diversity Within Prokaryotic Cells.

Section 2: Genetic Information and Its Flow

Description: This section will focus on making sure that the students learn about genes, genetic information, and how genetic information works.

Learning Outcomes:  Upon completion of this section, students will be able to:

1. Understand Genes.
2. Discuss Evolution.
3. Describe Mutations and Mutation Types.
4. Explain Gene and Protein Families.
5. Differentiate between Orthologs & Paralogs.
6. Explain Gene Transfer Between Organisms.
7. Understand Genetic Sequence.

Section 3: Brief Introduction to Genome and Model Organism

Description: This section will focus on making sure that the students develop an understanding of genome and model organisms.

Learning Outcomes:  Upon completion of this section, students will be able to:

1. Explain Eukyrotic Genomes and their Regulatory DNA.
2. Discuss Model Organisms for Genomic Studies including Yeast, Worm, Drosophila, Mouse, Human and Arabidopsis.
3. Describe How Gene Expression of all Genes in an Organism is Studied.
4. Discuss the Examples of Repeated Duplications.

Section 4: Cell Metabolism and Energy Production

Description: This section will focus on making sure that the students learn about the concepts of cell metabolism and energy production.

Learning Outcomes:  Upon completion of this section, students will be able to:

1. Explain Cell Metabolism including Enzymes, Heat Energy & Oxidization.
2. Describe How ATP Energy is Generated and the Synthesis of Biological Polymers.
3. Understand Glycolysis.
4. Discuss Nitrogen Cycle including Amino Acids and Nucleotide Synthesis.

Section 5: Protein Structure, Shape, and Characteristics

Description: This section will focus on making sure that the students learn and gain a deeper understanding of protein structures, their shape, characteristics, and how proteins function in an organism’s body.

Learning Outcomes:  Upon completion of this section, students will be able to:

1. Understand the Primary Structure of a Protein.
2. Discuss Native Conformation.
3. Explain Protein Secondary Structure.
4. Describe Tertiary Structures of Larger Proteins.
5. Explain Protein Quarternay Structures.
6. Describe How Covalent Bonds Stabilize Extracellular Proteins.
7. Discuss Why Proteins Bind to Molecules.
8. Understand Enzymes Along with Substrate Binding and Catalystic Reactions.
9. Explain How Proteins are Modified by Protein Phosphorylation.
10. Discuss How Small Proteins Assist the Movement Of Large Proteins.
11. Describe Protein Machines.

Section 6: Chromosomes & Their Characteristics

Description: This section will focus on making sure that the students learn about chromosomes and gain a deeper understanding of the characteristics of chromosomes.

Learning Outcomes:  Upon completion of this section, students will be able to:

1. Describe the Nucleosome and the Structure of the Nucleosome.
2. Explain Chromatin Remodelling Complexes.
3. Discuss Causes Of Genome Alterations.

Section 7: Evolutionary & Mutation Rates

Description: This section will focus on making sure that the students learn what are evolutionary and mutation rates and their importance.

Learning Outcomes:  Upon completion of this section, students will be able to:

1. Understand How Evolutionary Rates Determine the Size of a Vertebrate Genome Due to DNA Addition and Deletion.
2. Describe How Neutral Mutations Become Fixed in a Population with a Probability that Depends on Population Size.
3. Explain Why Mutation Rates are Extremely Low and Why they are Necessary for Life.

Section 8: DNA Replication

Description: This section will focus on making sure that the students gain an understanding of DNA replication.

Learning Outcomes:  Upon completion of this section, students will be able to:

1. Explain DNA Replication.