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An intensive six-and-a-half-week course for graduate or postdoctoral students, as well as established investigators, who want to become competent in microbiological techniques for working with a broad range of microbes, and in approaches for recognizing the metabolic, phylogenetic, and genomic diversity of cultivated and as yet uncultivated bacteria. Limited to 20 students.
The course is designed primarily for scientists with a substantial background in microbiology who want to isolate, cultivate, and initiate research programs with a diverse range of microbes. It emphasizes that the great strength of microbiology lies in the diversity of microbial types that can be exploited for basic research. The course will emphasize nature as the source of microorganisms for research; thus, beginning and advanced students have equal chances to make discoveries. The course is open to all scientists who have a strong interest in microbes and their activities (previous students have included biochemists, ecologists, environmental engineers, oceanographers, geneticists, geologists, and limnologists).
Students will isolate, cultivate, and experiment with characteristic microbial types from various marine, freshwater and terrestrial habitats, including those microbes living symbiotically with animals and plants. Emphasis will be on the isolation and cultivation of organisms that are distinguished by their phylogenetic, physiological, and morphological properties. Techniques for cultivation of strict anaerobes and phototrophs will be emphasized. Examples of microbial types that will be isolated are methanogens, acetogens, sulfate-reducing anaerobes, fermentative anaerobes and both oxygenic and anoxygenic phototrophs, as well as bacteria involved in the geochemical cycling of various metals. Magnetic bacteria, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, spirochetes, and luminescent bacteria will also be studied. A laboratory component on molecular approaches to microbial diversity will instruct students to use approaches of molecular phylogeny and comparative genomics. This will involve isolation and amplification of 16S rRNA genes as phylogenetic markers and the use of computer software programs to analyze nucleic acid sequences and to construct phylogenetic trees. As the capstone activity of the course, participants will conduct an individual research project of their own design.
This course is supported in part by grants from the National Science
Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Gordon and Betty
Moore Foundation.
2007 Faculty, TA's & Lecturers:
Ester Angert, Cornell University
Dion Antonopoulous, Michigan State University
Joshua Blodgett, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
John Breznak, Michigan State University
Andreas Brune, Max Plank Institution
Colleen Cavanuagh, Harvard University
Penny Chisholm, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kristen DeAngelis, University of California, Berkeley
Sonya Dyhrman, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Stephanie Eichorst, Michigan State University
Dave Emerson, American Type Culture Collection
Jim Fredrickson, Battelle Pacific NW Lab
Rebecca Gast, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Susan Golden, Texas A&M University
Ben Griffin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Carrie Harwood, University of Washington
Bob Haselkorn, University of Chicago
John Hayes, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Urs Jenal, Biozentrum, University of Basel
Dale Kaiser, Stanford University
Laura Katz, Smith College
Roberto Kolter, Harvard Medical School
Elizabeth Kujawinski, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Jared Leadbetter, California Institute of Technology
Derek Lovley, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Mike Madigan, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Linda McCarter, University of Iowa
Margaret McFall-Ngai, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Bill Metcalf, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Doug Nelson, University of California
Norm Pace, University of Colorado
Mecky Pohlschroeder, University of Pennsylvania
Martin Polz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Anton Post, H Steinitz Marine Biology Lab
Forest Rohwer, San Diego State University
Micheal Rother, Johann Wolfang Goethe-University Frankfurt
Elio Schaechter, San Diego State University
Thomas Schmidt, Michigan State University
Ancal Segal, San Diego State University
Stefan Sievert, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Mitch Sogin, MBL
Tracy Teal, California Institute of Technology
John Waterbury, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Rachel Whitaker, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Dagmar Woebken, Max Plank Institute for Marine Microbiology
Carl Woese, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
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