I teach in the UG Biology programme at Azim Premji University. These courses are offered to BSc Biology and BSc BEd (ITEP) Biology students.
Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (Jan 2022- Dec 2023). This course provided a detailed mechanisms of central dogma - DNA replication, transcription, translation, followed by gene regulation. In the 2nd half, students leanr about basic biochemical processes, enzymatic reactions, and introduction to metabolism via glycolysis, Kreb's and ETC.
Introduction to Genetics (Jan 2022 - present). This course covers transmission genetics in great detail - starting from Mendel's laws, and then building on complexities such as variation of dominance, sex linked traits, linkage and recombination. It also compares prokaryptic and eukaryotic genetics, genomics and discusses recent advances in the field including CRISPR, optogeentics, etc.
Biology of the cell (Aug 2024 - present). This course broadly covers basics of cellular structure and function, membrane transport, cell growth and death. The basics of molecular biology has been added to this course. The course concludes with an overview of cell signalling, and basics of cancer biology.
Biology Research Seminar ( Jan 2022- May 2023). This course is a journal club/ seminar style format where students read a major scientific paper and present it in the class. They are also required to do read a few reviews or similar articles for background research. Students submit a short written summary on the paper describing/ criticiquing a pivotal experiment or conclusion from the paper.
Introduction to Neuroscience (Jan 2023 - present) - This is an elective course designed by me to offer a foundational course that provides an overview of how the nervous system develops, the major brain areas and their functions, cellular basis of neuronal communication, neural circuiry of sensory modalities, and brain disorders. We also discuss major scientific breakthroughs in the field of Neuroscience through class discussion via vignettes. We also read excerpts from popular science work by V S Ramachandran (Phantom in the brain), Ed Yong ( An immense world), and Robert Sapolsky (Behave).
Common Curriculum Courses
Critical reading & writing I- (Aug 2024 - present). This course is a part of common curriculum course where students from different majors learn to read texts from literature, science, news, online resources, and annotate them, and write a summary in their own words. They are also introduced to descriptive vs narrative styles of writing. There are many fun activities incorporated such as analyzing a print vs video advertisement, analysing a visual text (a short movie, etc), a group presentation on a short text, and other writing assignments based on prompts.