CBI Journal Club

To see the schedule for Fall 2007/Spring 2008, click here.

To see the schedule from Fall 2006/Spring 2007, click here.

CBI Journal Club. All CBI students are required to enroll in 4 semesters of CHEM 681: Special Topics in Chemical Biology and are strongly encouraged to enroll in this 1-credit-hour course throughout their graduate career. This weekly course will serve as the CBI journal club, and will be taught by the CBI program director. Topics and activities will vary each semester. The Director will ensure that the content reflects all research areas representatively and that the content does not go beyond the abilities of the students. The course will be structured so as to maximize the following 4 goals for CBI students:

Comprehend the fundamental methods used in research at the chemistry:biology interface.
Develop the ability to critically analyze the primary literature involving CBI research.
Develop the ability to understand a formal professional lecture in CBI research
Develop the ability to propose and defend research experiments publicly

Starting in the Fall of 2007, the CBI journal club will meet Mondays at 4 pm. Each semester will be divided into five 3-week sessions, with each session dedicated to the research of a particular investigator. Most of these investigators will be CBI trainers while a few others will be external speakers. Speakers will provide the Director with a list of three or four primary research papers in which they are an author. The topic should be somewhere at the interface of chemistry and biology. Ideally, the papers would represent a coherent group, such that the content of each paper would contribute to an understanding of the others. During the first week of a given session, Session leaders (faculty listed on the schedule) for each session should present a seminar on their research, focusing somewhat more than usual on methods and teaching. At that time, the Director will distribute copies of the papers and assign them as reading for the students. In subsequent meetings of each session, students will read and discuss papers from the primary research literature, in the area of focus. Ideally, the session leader will attend these student-lead sessions, helping them as needed to understand results and conclusions presented. The CBI director will also attend, and can cover for the session leaders in cases where they cannot attend.