551-1129-00L Understanding and Engineering Microbial Metabolism
| Semester | Autumn Semester 2021 |
| Lecturers | J. Vorholt-Zambelli |
| Periodicity | yearly recurring course |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Comment | Number of participants limited to 6. The enrolment is done by the D-BIOL study administration. General safety regulations for all block courses: The COVID certificate is mandatory at ETH Zurich. Only students who have a Covid certificate, i.e. who have been vaccinated, have recovered or have been tested, are entitled to attend courses in attendance. -Whenever possible the distance rules have to be respected -All students have to wear masks throughout the course. Please keep reserve masks ready. Surgical masks (IIR) or medical grade masks (FFP2) without a valve are permitted. Community masks (fabric masks) are not allowed. -The installation and activation of the Swiss Covid-App is highly encouraged -Any additional rules for individual courses have to be respected -Students showing any COVID-19 symptoms are not allowed to enter ETH buildings and have to inform the course responsible. |
| Abstract | This laboratory course has a focus on current research topics in our laboratory related to metabolic engineering, the general understanding of metabolism, and is partially focused on one carbon metabolism. Projects will be conducted in small groups. |
| Learning objective | The course aims at introducing technologies to investigate bacterial metabolism and key principles of metabolic engineering. The main focus of this block course is on practical work and will familiarize participants with complementary approaches, in particular genetic, biochemical and analytical techniques including metabolomics. Results will be presented by students in scientific presentations. Another goal is to learn how to write a scientific report. |
| Content | The course and will include topics such as pathway elucidation & engineering and related ongoing research projects in the lab. Experimental work applied during the course will comprise methods such as cloning work & transformation, growth determination, enzyme activity assays, liquid-chromatography mass-spectrometry and dynamic labeling experiments. |
| Lecture notes | None |
| Literature | Will be provided at the beginning of the course. |