Teaching the Science with the Genome Browser

Teaching with the Genome Browser

This project seeks to explore genomics, genetics, molecular biology, medicine and more using the Genome Browser as a display device. We present short vignettes to illustrate ideas over a variety of disciplines with the intent of showing the concepts graphically. We hope that teachers and students alike will find them interesting and useful.

Our work is not extensively referenced, but it has been vetted for accuracy. Please feel free to let us know if we get anything really wrong. There are many other stories that could be told with the Browser, but this is a start.

Topics

Molecular Biology

• Transcription
• 5' to 3' direction — by Mateo Etcheveste, UCSC
• Tissue-specific gene expression — by Cally Lin, UCSC
• Regulation of Transcription
• CpG Islands and Epigenetics — by Arturo Marquez, University of Sonora, Mexico
• Translation
• Start and stop codons — by Mateo Etcheveste, UCSC
• Three reading frames — by Mateo Etcheveste, UCSC
• Mutations, variants — by Zoë Shmidt, UCSC
• Introduction
• Synonymous variants
• Missense variants
• Nonsense variants
• Frameshift variants
• The wobble base: Multiple codons for an amino acid — by Cally Lin, UCSC
• Splicing
• Splicing makes alternate isoforms — by Mateo Etcheveste, UCSC
• Different isoforms are used in different tissues — by Zoë Shmidt, UCSC
• Methods
• CRISPR — by Mateo Etcheveste, UCSC

Medicine

• Huntington's disease and CAG repeats — by Mateo Etcheveste, UCSC
• Polyglutamine motifs in other genes — by Mateo Etcheveste, UCSC

Populations

• Digesting your milk: LCT gene and lactase persistence — by Zoë Shmidt, UCSC

• Alcohol intolerance in East Asians — by Zoë Shmidt, UCSC

Evolution

• Evolution of speech: The FOXP2 gene — by Zoë Shmidt, UCSC
• Ebola and Marburg virus Conservation — by Mateo Etcheveste, UCSC
• Why apes have no tails — by Zoë Shmidt, UCSC

Browser training

Our video tutorials address some common questions we've gathered from our mailing list. Along the way we try to show you interesting features of the Browser you may not have found on your own.

Visit our YouTube channel or use the links below.