Udacity

Tales from the Genome (Udacity)

Offered by Udacity, 23andMe,
Tales from the Genome (Udacity)

Introduction to Genetics for Beginners. This course is a journey into the biology of the human genome and will highlight the scientific, social, and personal perspectives of people living with a variety of traits.

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You will learn about fundamental principles of inheritance, gene expression, mutation and variation, development of simple and complex biological traits, human ancestry and evolution, and the acquisition of personal genetic information. By the end of this course, you will be able to read and understand genetic information available from personal genetics services such as 23andMe.

Why Take This Course
You will learn about fundamental principles of inheritance, gene expression, mutation and variation, development of simple and complex biological traits, human ancestry and evolution, and the acquisition of personal genetic information. By the end of this course, you will be able to read and understand genetic information available from personal genetics services such as 23andMe.

What You Will Learn

Lesson 1
Origin of mutation/variation

  • Types of mutations and various causes of mutation.
  • Allelic frequency
  • and the spread of alleles in a population.

Lesson 2
How to obtain and interpret personal genetic information

  • Personalized genetics: sample acquisition
  • DNA extraction and processing.
  • Interpretation of results.

Lesson 3
Simple genetic traits

  • Molecular causes of monogenic traits.
  • Loss-of-function vs. gain-of-function alleles
  • and dominance.

Lesson 4
Multifactorial traits

  • Polygenic traits
  • qualitative and quantitative measures.
  • Twin studies
  • relative risk
  • and genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

Lesson 5
Pharmacogenetics: genes and drugs

  • Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
  • Alleles affecting drug metabolism.
  • Personalized medicine.

Lesson 6
Origin of mutation/variation

  • Types of mutations and various causes of mutation.
  • Allelic frequency
  • and the spread of alleles in a population.

Lesson 7
How to obtain and interpret personal genetic information

  • Personalized genetics: sample acquisition
  • DNA extraction and processing.
  • Interpretation of results.

Lesson 8
Simple genetic traits

  • Molecular causes of monogenic traits.
  • Loss-of-function vs. gain-of-function alleles
  • and dominance.

Lesson 9
Multifactorial traits

  • Polygenic traits
  • qualitative and quantitative measures.
  • Twin studies
  • relative risk
  • and genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

Lesson 10
Pharmacogenetics: genes and drugs

  • Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
  • Alleles affecting drug metabolism.
  • Personalized medicine.
Go to Class
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