Special Techniques in Molecular Genetics

This is a methods-literacy course: instead of memorizing techniques, you learn how the core toolkit of recombinant DNA work — cloning, PCR, expression systems, transcript and RNA analysis, microarrays, proteomics, knockdowns, transgenics, gene therapy — actually works, where each method breaks, and how to read its outputs critically. The semester runs on lectures plus heavy primary-literature reading, with quizzes, a project, and student presentations standing in for a wet lab. It's the bridge between your earlier MBG coursework and being able to follow (or design) a real research paper, which matters the moment you walk into a lab for a thesis, summer project, or graduate application.