2024 Faculty Courses School of Life Science and Technology Department of Life Science and Technology Graduate major in Life Science and Technology
Biomolecular Engineering
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Life Science and Technology
- Instructor(s)
- Toshiaki Fukui / Tetsuya Kitaguchi / Susumu Kajiwara / Yuriko Osakabe
- Class Format
- Lecture (Livestream)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 1-2 Mon / 1-2 Thu
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- LST.A411
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2024
- Offered quarter
- 2Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 14, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
Genetic manipulation techniques have enabled us to modify two major biomolecules, DNA and proteins, artificially. Nowadays, significant modifications of functions of proteins and cells have been achieved by complicated and large-scale modification of DNA/chromosomes based on advanced genetic manipulation technology, thus we can now apply the well modified functions in several applications such as molecular recognition, production of useful compounds, imaging, and so on.
This course covers the bases of protein engineering, genetic engineering, metabolic engineering, chromosome engineering and bioimaging, as well as advanced knowledge in these topics.
Course description and aims
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1) Understand the outline of genetic engineering and metabolic engineering, and acquire the advanced knowledge about genetic and metabolic manipulation of microbes for production of useful compounds.
2) Understand the outline of infectious diseases, and learn about the basics of human immunity and anti-microbial drug development related to infectious disease prevention and chemotherapy.
3) Understand the outline of protein engineering, and acquire the advanced knowledge about protein thermostabilization, molecular evolutional methods, and antibody engineering.
4) Understand the principles and basic mechanisms of genome editing and acquire advanced knowledge of applied techniques.
5) Understand genetic engineering of plants and learn about the characteristics in its handling.
Keywords
Protein engineering, Genetic engineering, Metabolic engineering, Synthetic biology, Infectous diseases, Immunity, Anti-microbials, Genome editing
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Five instructors provide 2-4 classes with respect to the selected field in biomolecular engineering by using PowerPoint slides. The lectures will be given by on-line live (ZOOM).
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Advanced techniques for genetic engineering | Explain the basis and advanced techniques for genetic engineering. |
| Class 2 | Microbial metabolisms and overview of metabolic engineering | Explain the properties of microbial metabolisms and notion and methodologies for metabolic engineering. |
| Class 3 | Recent metabolic engineering of microbes for production of useful compounds | Understand and explain recent applications of microbial metabolic engineering aiming production of useful compounds. |
| Class 4 | Not yet fixed | Not yet fixed |
| Class 5 | Not yet fixed | Not yet fixed |
| Class 6 | Protein Engineering (1) Overview and thermostabilization | Explain the notion of and methodologies used for protein engineering, and thermostabilization as an important application. |
| Class 7 | Protein Engineering (2) Rational design and molecular evolution | Explain the basis and applications of rational design and molecular evolution, as two important methodologies in protein engineering. |
| Class 8 | Protein Engineering (3) Antibody engineering | Explain the basis and applications of antibody engineering, as an important application of protein engineering. |
| Class 9 | Engineering of fluorescent protein indicators | Understand and explain the development of genetically-encoded biosensors based on fluorescent proteins. |
| Class 10 | Engineering of bioluminescent indicators | Understand and explain the design and application of biosensors based on luciferases. |
| Class 11 | Controlling cell signaling by engineered proteins | Understand and explain the biological techniques for manipulating cell function. |
| Class 12 | Gene and genome editing (1) Principles and basic mechanisms | Understand and explain the principles and basic mechanisms of genome editing. |
| Class 13 | Gene and genome editing (2) Advance technologies and applications | Understand and explain the advance technologies and applications of genome editing. |
| Class 14 | Plant genetic engineering | Understand and explain the plant genetic engineering. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
None.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Handouts will be distributed at the beginning of class when necessary. The PowerPoint documents that are to be used in the class will be made available in advance via the T2SCHOLA system, as possible.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Students will be assessed by reports indicated by each instructor (20% each).
Related courses
- LST.A208 ： Molecular Biology I
- LST.A213 ： Molecular Biology II
- LST.A336 ： Genetic Engineering
- LST.A345 ： Microbiology
- LST.A406 ： Molecular Developmental Biology and Evolution
Prerequisites
Although there is no special requirement, students who take this course are required to have basic knowledge of biochemistry/molecular biology by studying the related subjects.
Other
This lecture is given in English, but some supplementary explanation in Japanese may be introduced in the last part of the classes.