Biologists learn structure, mechanism of powerful 'molecular motor' in virus
123WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have discovered the atomic structure of a powerful "molecular motor" that packages DNA into the head segment Read more...
Bindley Bioscience Center adds $20 million in life sciences research
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University's Bindley Bioscience Center helped generate $20 million in research for Indiana and nearly doubled its Read more...
First genomics breeding program to benefit poultry industry
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The first breeding program in the world to use an entire animal genome is beginning under the direction of university Read more...
Purdue scientist appointed Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Jue Chen, an associate professor of biological sciences, is the first Purdue University scientist to be appointed as an Read more...
Purdue breaks ground on Hockmeyer Hall
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University broke ground on the new Wayne T. and Mary T. Hockmeyer Hall on Friday (Oct. Read more...
The PULSe curriculum has been designed to provide students with the basic information they will need to succeed in the PULSe TGs during their Ph.D. work. In addition, the curriculum provides a broad and interdisciplinary program of study with the maximum possible flexibility so that students may tailor their programs to their individual needs and explore several training areas before deciding on one for their thesis program. The core requirements are a combination of general courses, TG-specific survey courses and laboratory rotations.
Focus Area Courses: There are four required focus areas. One course must be taken to satisfy each area. The core is designed to provide breadth to otherwise very specialized training; therefore, the same course may not be counted as satisfying multiple areas.
Scientific Ethics: The course can be taken at any time during PULSe graduate training.
ENTM 612 - Responsible Conduct in Research (1 credit) Lecture once per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Fall, Spring.Overview of values, professional standards, and regulations that define responsible conduct in research. Students learn the values and standards of responsible research through readings and lecture/discussion and practice application of these values and standards to research situations through class discussion of case studies from life sciences research.
GRAD 590S - PULSe Scientific Communications (1 credit / taken twice). Designed to develop the skills needed for effective scientific presentations. Students register for this course in the Fall and Spring semesters of Year 1 of study.
Proposal Writing: One of the following courses must be completed before the end of Year 2 of PULSe graduate training.
HORT 603 - Grants And Grantsmanship (1 credit). Lecture once per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Focuses on funding opportunities in agricultural research and techniques of writing successful scientific grant proposals. Students will write a proposal on a research topic of their choice during the course, and they will gain experience in the peer review process by preparing written reviews of proposals and participating in a panel meeting in which proposals are discussed and ranked.
MCMP 690 Grant Writing(1 credit). Offered Spring. Instructions for the preparation and submission of an NIH-style RO1 grant proposal will be covered. Each student will write and submit a complete proposal. The proposals will be student reviewed in a mock study section at the end of the course.
Analysis of Data: This requirement is designed to train students from a variety of backgrounds in methods of acquiring and/or analyzing data in any of the various disciplines within PULSe. As such, there is a menu of courses from which students (and TGs) can choose depending on individual student or TG needs. These courses and their descriptions are listed below. Students must satisfy this requirement by the end of Year 2
BIOL 595K - Methods and Measurements in Physical Biochemistry (3credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Fall. Introduction to physical methods in biochemistry and physical measurements of biological systems, such as UV/Visspectroscopy, circular dichroism, IR and Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence, neutron diffraction, light scattering, scattering from ordered materials, x-ray crystallography, NMR and ESR spectroscopy, electron microscopy, mass spectroscopy. Application of these techniques to studies of structure and dynamic behavior of biological macromolecules, composition and orientation of structural elements and cofactors, ligand binding and conformational change in biological interactions and detailed probes of local changes in structure, solvent accessibility and specific bonds formed in biological reactions. Interpretation of the resulting data and analysis of strengths and limitations of each technique. Examples from research articles are discussed that illustrate how these methods are used in modern biochemistry. Prerequisite: Introductory Calculus and Physics or permission of the instructor.
MCMP 514 - Advanced Medicinal Analysis (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Spring. Theory and applications of biophysical and bioanalytical methods for the identification and quantification of biological and pharmaceutical samples. Methods to be discussed include chromatography, electrophoresis, optical spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, electrochemical methods, radiochemical analysis, ultracentrifugation, calorimetry and surface phasmon resonance. Physical measurements, such as binding equilibrium, kineticsand macromolecular structure will be discussed. Fundamentals of each technique will be discussed, with a major focus on the application and integration of presented methods for the analysis of biological problems.
STAT 503 - Statistical Methods for Biology (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Fall, Spring. Introductory statistical methods, with emphasis on applications in biology. Topics include descriptive statistics, binomial and normal distributions, confidence interval estimation, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, introduction tononparametric testing, linear regression and correlation, goodness-of-fit tests, and contingency tables. Credit allowed in either 503 or 511 but not both. Credit By Exam may be established in this course by passing an examination administered by the department. Prerequisite: Calculus.
STAT 511 - Statistical Methods (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Fall, Spring. Descriptive statistics; elementary probability; sampling distributions; inference, testing hypotheses, and estimation; normal, binomial, Poisson, hypergeometric distributions; one-way analysis of variance; contingency tables; regression. Credit allowed in either 503 or 511 but not both. Credit may be established in this course by passing an examination administered by the department.
STAT 512 - Applied Regression Analysis (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Fall, Spring.Inference in simple and multiple linear regression, residual analysis, transformations, polynomial regression, model building with real data, nonlinear regression. One-way and two-way analysis of variance, multiple comparisons, fixed and random factors, analysis of covariance. Use of existing statistical computer programs. Credit may be established by passing an exam administered by dept. Advanced course and enrollment requires testing out of either the STAT 503 or STAT 511 prerequisite.
CS 662 - Pattern Recognition and Decision-Making Processes (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Spring. Introduction to the basic concepts and various approaches of pattern recognition and decision-making processes. Topics include various classifier designs,evaluation of classifiability, learning machines, feature extraction, and modeling. Prerequisite: ECE 302.
CS 530 -Introduction to Scientific Visualization (3 credits) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Spring. Teaches the fundamentals of scientific visualization and prepares students to apply these techniques in fields such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, and physics. Emphasis is on the presentation of scalar, vector, and tensor fields; data sampling and resampling; and reconstruction using multivariate finite elements (surfaces, volumes, and surfaces on surfaces). Computer Science Department registration approval is required.
Biology 595N - Introduction to Computational Neuroscience (3 credit) Lecture 3 times per week for 50 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Introduction to mathematical modeling of the biological processes involved in neuroscience. Brief introduction to differential equations and the basic biology underlying the electrical processes in neurons. Prepares students to work in an interdisciplinary environment that includes both biological and mathematical scientists. Prerequisite: One year of calculus.
BIOL 595A/ CS 590B - Protein Bioinformatics (3 credits) Lecture 2 times per week for 75 minutes per meeting for 16 weeks. Offered: Spring. Algorithmic challenges in analyzing sequences (what genes encode an organism, and how are genes related across organisms), structures (what do the protein constructed for these genes look like, and what does that imply about their functions), interactions (how are proteins helping and hindering each other in complex networks), and the underlying experimental data. The computational techniques applied include dynamic programming, graph search, hidden Markov models, clustering, optimization and simulation. Computer Science Department registration approval is required.
Training Group Introductory Courses: (4-7 credits) Each TG offers one introductory course covering general aspects of the discipline, as indicated below. PULSe students must enroll in at least two of these courses in addition to the core courses. Courses used to fulfill core requirements do not count towards the two additional TG courses. These courses are to be completed by the end of Year 2.
Training Groups are topic-oriented research groups consisting of faculty from multiple departments.
Training groups are an administrative home for PULSe students, a student choice that impacts
curriculum and research training activities.
