The course is organized over two weeks at the Biochemistry laboratory of Ecole Polytechnique.
During the first week, you will conduct a mini research project aimed at characterizing the active site of an essential enzymatic protein and performing a thorough study of the function of several amino acids in catalysis.
The purpose of this course is to introduce an experimental approach used to carry out a research project, to discover new methods, to discuss the merits of the use of these methods, their advantages and their limits. This course therefore provides useful tools in all areas of the molecular studies of biological processes.
Experimental work: site-directed mutagenesis, gene sequencing, protein purification, characterization of mutant proteins by in-depth study of their catalytic mechanisms, biophysical methods.
During the second week you will attend a series of lectures directly related to the experimental study of the first week.
A half-day will be devoted to the use of computer tools for the study of the phylogeny of RNAs and proteins and for the engineering of protein:ligand interactions.
Finally, three days will be devoted to electron microscopy applied to ribosomal complexes. The preparation of samples for electron microscopy and cryo-micoscopy will be introduced. You will be able to observe the grids prepared on one of the two microscopes available at Ecole polytechnique. Finally, you will also attend an introduction to the collection and processing of cryo-electron microscopy images to obtain the three-dimensional structure of your object of study. The advantages and limitations of this technique will be discussed throughout this training.
- Teaching coordinator: Gaillard Thomas
- Teaching coordinator: Madru Clément
- Teaching coordinator: Mechulam Yves
- Teaching coordinator: Schmitt Emmanuelle
Optional Year 3 project for both periods.
Alone or in pairs projects will be the subject of discussions between students and teachers and will be assiociate to one of the followed units.
The proposed projects by the Biology Department will be available in the BioInformatics PA.
The project ca be carried out according to one of the three following options with the teachers during the starting PA lecture hall: P1 or P1 and P2
- BIO511
Research project: the first option involves a research activity in laboratory. In most projects of this option, a part of data production will be followed by an analysis and modeling part.
It is a first introduction and a personal initial contact with the research world.
- Bibliographic project: This option involves developing a bibliographic in-depth research on a specific subject related with one of the year 3 course.
The purpose is to be capable of presenting this topics in a concise, understandable and instructive way in the form of a course presentation with a written document.
- Project development: This option involves developing a funding request for a research project. The purpose will be to define a scientific project innovative and ambitious on one of the topics proposed in year 3, to write and present it orally.
For all this options, exchanges between teachers in the department and between departments are highly encouraged. All these topics can also be developed in engineering perspective, incuding the developement of methods, tools, software, databases and genetically modified organisms.
The purpose of the year 3 project is to start a personal project on a biology research topic by combining reflection, bibliographic analysis and/or experiments and data analases. The project is to be realized alone or in pairs (possibly more but a clear division of tasks will be required). It will be attached to one of the year 3 teachers that you have chosen so you can discuss your progress and interogations regurarly with your teachers. In order that your projects are succesful, a real engagement is required, both in terms of working time you will devote to it in the first weeks and in terms of openness and maturity you must demonstrate, to collect sources of information from your teachers but also from teachers in other departments or regional researchers. You will learn the most by keeping the project alive.
Schedule:
A list of projects and subjects will be presented at the lecture hall 0 in September.
At the end of the day, each student must have defined a project, a subject and/or chosen a referent teacher. The projects and subjects presented remain open and are intended to give you a starting point and to show you the different fields of expertise of the biology department's teachers. Feel free to develop these projects or to discuss with the teachers to bring out new ones that are important to you, our only goal is to make sure that these projects are coherent and realizable, so you can develop your full potential. You can also choose an article analysis with a unit of P1, especially BIO571.
Evaluation modality:
- September to end of February: project development, a half-day each week with your tutor.
- Mid-December: intermediate defense organized at the end of the first period.
- Mid-March/end of March: redaction of a short report and oral defense.
A 10 minutes oral presentation (15 minutes for a duo) will be followed by a 15 minutes discussion with coordinators and project tutors. We do not ask for a written report but we encourage you to deliver a report to your renferent so they can keep a record of your work. Check with them for the expected form.
Course language: French
- Teaching coordinator: Mechulam Yves
- Teaching coordinator: Tenaillon Olivier
In-depth course in first period, optional in second period
Personalized Reconstitution of the Tumoral Process
This course is fully performed in the lab of Alexis Gautreau on campus. You will be supervised by a trained post-doctoral researcher to perform experiments. The project uses Next Generation Sequencing data of tumors from patients that we selected based on the fact that they display an invasive Breast Cancer in order to gradually transform normal mammary epithelial cells into fully invasive cancer cells. The originality of the approach is to use only the driver mutations found in the tumor of a single patient in order to recapitulate the transformation path and the tumor characteristics of this patient. The project involves driver prediction using bioinformatics, to distinguish oncogenic mutations from inactivation of tumor suppressor genes, to clone and express mutated oncogenes and to knock-out tumor suppressor genes using CRISPR-mediated genome edition.
BIO572 (Personalized reconstitution of the tumoral process): laboratory research funded by the Mécénat Enseignement et Recherch Servier with a limited number of positions. You must have followed the course BIO432 (Pathologies and therapeutic strategies) and declare your interest to Alexis Gautreau.
Course language: Anglais
ECTS credits: 4
- Teaching coordinator: Gautreau Alexis