From Curiosity to Cure Case Studies

Course overview: The goal of this course is to engage upper-level undergraduates and beginning graduate students in an immersive intellectual experience at the intersection of rigorous scientific inquiry and the history of innovation in molecular biology. The central theme will be curiosity and critical thinking as the twin drivers of both technological innovation and scientific discovery. The course will be divided into a series of modules focused on analysis and presentation of original research papers related to one important breakthrough in molecular biology that occurred during the past century. A prominent theme of the course will be the persistently unpredictable trajectory linking technical research and methodological developments to breakthrough science. Approximately six-to-eight original research papers will be covered in each module, spanning topics from the development of the methods that made the breakthrough possible through practical application of the resulting knowledge.

Three or four of the following breakthroughs will likely be covered in 2023:

• Discovery and clinical application of insulin by Banting & Best.
• Development of the Trikafta triple drug treatment for cystic fibrosis.
• Development of CRISPR for human genetic engineering.
• Genetics and pharmacological treatment of human hyperlipidemia.
• Development of the Gleevec tyrosine kinase inhibitor to cure Ph+ leukemias.
• Development of “next-generation” nucleic acid sequencing methods.