EUKARYOTIC GENE EXPRESSION
July 27 - August 16, 2010
Application Deadline: March 15, 2010

Instructors:
Joaquin Espinosa, University of Colorado at Boulder
Lee Kraus, Cornell University
Ali Shilatifard, Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Dylan Taatjes, University of Colorado at Boulder

The Eukaryotic Gene Expression Course is designed for students, postdocs, and principal investigators who have recently ventured into the exciting area of gene regulation. The course will focus on state-of-the-art strategies and techniques employed in the field. Emphasis will be placed both on in vitro and in vivo protein-DNA interactions and on novel methodologies to study gene regulation. Students will make nuclear extracts, perform in vitro transcription reactions and measure RNA levels using primer extension. Characterizations of the DNA-binding properties of site-specific transcription factors will be carried out using electrophoretic mobility shift and DNase I footprinting assays. In addition, students will learn techniques for the assembly and analysis of chromatin in vitro. This will include transcription assays, chromatin footprinting and chromatin remodeling assays.

Over the past few years, the gene regulation field has developed in vivo approaches to study gene regulation. Students will be exposed to the chromatin immunoprecipitation technique. They will also use RNAi for specific knock-down experiments in mammalian cells. In addition, determining cellular gene expression profiles has been accelerated tremendously by DNA microarray technology. Students will receive hands-on training in performing and interpreting results from DNA microarrays.

Experience with basic recombinant DNA techniques is a prerequisite for admission to this course. Lectures by the instructors will cover the current status of the gene expression field, theoretical aspects of the methodology, and broader issues regarding strategies for investigating the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes. Guest lecturers will discuss contemporary problems in eukaryotic gene regulation and technical approaches to their solution.

Speakers in the 2009 course:
Marisa Bartolomei, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Emily Bernstein, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Myles Brown, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Sharon Dent, UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Emmanouil Dermitzakis, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Thomas Gingeras, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Robert Kingston, Mass General Hospital/Harvard Med School
Jacqueline Lees, MIT Center for Cancer Research
Michael Levine, University of California, Berkeley
James Manley, Columbia University
Barbara Meyer, HHMI /UC Berkeley
Eva Nogales, HHMI/UC Berkeley
Carol Prives, Columbia University
Frank Pugh, Penn State University
Danny Reinberg, HHMI/NYU School of Medicine
Dylan Taatjes, University of Colorado, Boulder
Michael Washburn, Stowers Institute for Medical Research


This course is supported with funds provided by the National Cancer Institute

Cost (including board and lodging): $4,250
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