CBIO 243

Principles of Cancer Systems Biology

Mondays and Fridays, April 2 - June 11, 2018
9:30 - 11:30am
Li Ka Shing, LK209

Course Director: Sylvia Plevritis, PhD

This course introduces major principles of cancer systems biology research that integrates experimental and computational biology in order to systematically unravel the complexity of cancer. The opportunity to embark on cancer systems biology research has been enabled by the rapid emergence of numerous and increasingly accessible technologies that provide global DNA, RNA and protein expression profiles of cells under a variety of conditions following environmental, drug and genetic perturbations. The challenge that we will address in this course is how to analyze this high-dimensional and highly-multiplexed data in order to synthesize biologically and clinically relevant insights and generate hypotheses for further functional testing. This course aims to broaden the student’s exposure to the experimental and computational skills needed to apply the emerging principles of systems biology to the study of cancer. Students will be required to attend a series of lectures demonstrating the application of systems biology research in the field of cancer genomics, proteomics, single cell analysis and cross-species analysis, with applications to the study of the tumor microenvironment, drug screening, and identification of new drug targets. Students will be graded on class participation and a final project demonstrating the understanding of key concepts in cancer systems biology research.