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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 with funds provided by
Gordon and
Betty Moore Foundation
Howard
Hughes Medical Institute
NASA
National Science Foundation
U.S.
Department of Energy
2011 Faculty and Staff:
Course Directors
Dan Buckley, Cornell University
Steve Zinder, Cornell University
Course Faculty
Bill Metcalf, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Victoria Orphan, California Institute of Technology
Suzanna Brauer, Appalachian State University
Jörg Overmann, Deutsche Sammlung für Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen, Germany
Teaching Fellows
Carie Frantz, University of Southern California
Chuck Pepe-Ranney, Colorado School of Mines
Sara Kleindienst, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
Elizabeth Wilbanks, University of California Davis
Annie Rowe, Cornell University
Libusha Kelly, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Course Coordinator
Ashley Campbell, Cornell University
Course Assistant
Peter Kelly, Cornell University
Lecturers
Colleen Cavanaugh, Harvard University
Ford Doolittle, Dalhousie University
Nicole Dublier, Max Plank Institute
Martin Dworkin, University of Minnestoa
Jonathan Eisen, University of California Davis
Pete Greenberg, University of Washington
Carrie Harwood, University of Washington
Julie Huber, Marine Biological Laboratory
Gijs Kuenen, Delft University of Technology
Jared Leadbetter,California Institute of Technology
Nancy Moran, Yale University
MaryAnn Moran, University of Georgia
Dianne Newman, California Institute of Technology
Howard Ochman, Yale University
Ken Nealson, University of Southern California
Norm Pace, University of Colorado
Martin Polz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
James Prosser,The University of Aberdeen
Ruth Richardson, Cornell University
Abigail Salyers, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Tom Schmidt, Michigan State University
Sherri Simmons, Marine Biological Laboratory
Mitch Sogin, Marine Biological Laboratory
Paul Turner, Yale University
Ralph Wolfe, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Linda Amaral-Zettler, Marine Biological Laboratory
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