Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Advanced Bacterial Genetics Course

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In this project, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory will continue its highly successful postgraduate laboratory short course in Advanced Bacterial Genetics. This intensive and heavily over-subscribed course has a long pedigree of advanced training in cutting-edge, modern microbial genetics, with its roots in a laboratory course started by Nobel laureate Max Delbruck in 1945. The three-week summer course prepares each participant to enter directly into research that makes use of advanced techniques and concepts in the molecular genetics of bacterial systems. Because the course experiments address real research questions, in addition to exposing students to different techniques, they provide training in experimental design, trouble-shooting and real data analysis. Daily discussion periods cover the methodology, experimental design and analysis and invited speakers introduce students to diverse areas of modern microbial research. The course stimulates interaction among new investigators with diverse backgrounds and interest and provides training towards research in modern microbiology.Broader ImpactTraining scientists in the latest techniques in bacterial genetics is important for our greater understanding of many living systems, since bacteria are omnipresent in our environment and essential to human life, at times representing significant or potential threats in terms of infectious diseases, environmental imbalance and even bioterrorism. Each year, this course trains a new generation of young scientists in state-of-the-art techniques in how to probe the inner workings of bacteria, and how to use this understanding in a variety of applications in biotechnology and agriculture. Given the relative simplicity of the bacterial cell compared to that of multicellular organisms, scientists are now attempting to model the entire system of the cell, using a combination of genetics and computer modeling to understand the fundamental operation system of these organisms. The course provides fertile ground for students and faculty to meet and discuss the intricacies of the science in a relaxed but intensive environment, which many subsequently cite as some of the most significant and formative of their scientific careers, enabling collaboration and interactions that are maintained and strengthened for years into the future.