Chemistry 548 is a course that was especially designed for CBI trainees. In this course, trainees attend seminars that describe topics at the frontiers of Chemistry and Biology. Class discussion of each seminar will take place approximately one week prior to the date and is lead by a student participant.

One of the goals of the CBI training program is to provide foundational training to all fellows in chemistry and biology. Part of that training is becoming familiar with the primary literature at the cutting edge of those two disciplines and becoming proficient at analyzing and critiquing work in those areas. It is these two areas that Chemistry 548 addresses, using a format that will also give you practice in organizing information into lecture-style presentations and fielding questions on the fly.

There are two semesters of Chem 548 and the fall term focuses on the more chemical aspects ofchemical biology. Towards that end, we ask each enrolled student to look at the seminar offeringsof this term from the Departments of Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry and Biophysics (links provided below) and chose 3 seminars of particular interest to them. Please provide your list of three to me by Monday September 12th. I will then winnow down the list such that each student has a single seminar for the term, and will schedule one of you to present a 40-minute lecture on the topic of the selected seminar (typically this will be 1-2 weeks before your selected seminar). We will all then attend the seminar and, when possible, meet with the seminar speaker.

The grading of the course is straightforward. We expect attendance (at the presentations and the seminars), participation in the classroom discussions, and a coherent presentation when it is your turn. You will receive specific feedback on your presentation from the other students and from me in order to help you further develop your presentation skills.

To aid you in the first step of the class, here are the links for the key chemically-oriented seminar programs:

Dept of Chemistry
https://www.chem.lsa.umich.edu/chem/eventsSeminars/cal_public.php

Medicinal Chemistry
https://pharmacy.umich.edu/pharmacy/medchemseminars/fall_2011

Center for Chemical Genomics
http://www.lsi.umich.edu/node/1218

Pharmacology
http://www.pharmacology.med.umich.edu/Pharmacology/Seminars_Events.html

Biological Chemistry
http://www.biochem.med.umich.edu/?q=seminars

 

Winter 2010: List of current course seminars (pdf)