Biological Sciences

The course introduces construction and function of gene vector and systematical knowledge of vecotorlogy. Topics include the the meaning and methods of genetic operation and the status of gene vector in genetic therapy.

This lecture series covers the science and sociology of insects as a food. Increasing media, investment, and public policy attention has been given to the role insects may play in the future of food. Can eating insects really save the world from famine and environmental destruction? Are there health costs or benefits to adding insects to the diet? Will all people accept insects as food? Should we be promoting edible insects at all, and if so, how best do we do it? What species will we eat and how shall we raise them? This class examines all aspects of the edible insects question, with students taught a broad but thorough overview of the field and asked to consider questions in class about what role they think insects will play in their own food futures, and why they think this way.

The goal of this inter-disciplinary bioinformatics course, consisting of lectures, exercises, and a seminar, is to introduce students to (1) key theoretical concepts, computational strategies, and algorithms for predicting RNA secondary structures and related features, covering probabilistic and comparative machine learning methods; (2) key experimental concepts for transcriptome-wide RNA structure and RNA-RNA interaction probing; and (3) key research contributions published in recent years.

This course examines the study of the interactions between crop plants and their abiotic and biotic environments within the tropical agroecosystem. In this course, the focus is on the environmental relations of individual crop species (autecology). Characteristics of the crop production system will be studied along with human and environmental influences on the provision of ecosystem services, resource use efficiency, crop yield, and sustainability. Crop evolution, breeding and distribution will be explored using selected crop examples and taking into account propagation issues, environmental influences and crop production goals. Physical factors of particular interest include solar irradiance, temperature, water supply, atmospheric conditions, and soil characteristics (including mineral nutrient supply). The balance of carbon, energy, water, and mineral nutrients in crop ecosystems is also relevant for the analysis of input use efficiency. Biotic factors of interest include cropping system features, plant density, weeds, pests, diseases, and beneficial organisms. Biotic and abiotic stress factors will be identified along with the nature of plant stress injuries and adaptations/manipulations that favor growth and production in suboptimal environments. Integrated approaches for the management of abiotic and biotic constraints to crop production will be considered.

This course provides extensive information about diverse fields of microbial biotechnology, further extending from Basic Microbiology and Applied Microbiology. The class covers three major fields of microbial biotechnology, Medical Microbiology, Industrial Microbiology, and Environmental Microbiology, which play pivotal roles in medicine, natural environment, and bioindustry in the future human society. Through this class students are expected to have comprehensive vision about future science as well as microbial biotechnology. It is highly recommended that students have familiarity with general microbiology and applied microbiology.