New freshman course focuses on biomedical research in clinical setting

Professor Lawrence Mandarino
January 04, 2013

Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences is offering a new course this spring to introduce freshman biology students to translational research in biomedicine at Mayo Clinic Arizona. The course, BIO 191, is called “Introduction to Translational Biomedical Research” and meets one time each week in a small-group, open-discussion format at the ASU-Mayo Clinic site in Scottsdale.

Taught by Larry Mandarino, professor in the School of Life Sciences and founding director of the Center for Metabolic Biology, the class emphasizes student-faculty discussion and interaction and is strongly recommended for first-year students.

Professor Stuart J. Newfeld, a cellular and molecular biosciences researcher in the School of Life Sciences, says the course “is an important and concrete step that our school is taking toward integrating the ASU-Mayo partnership directly into the ASU curriculum for the benefit of our students.”

This one-credit seminar course provides information about the field of translational research by incorporating real examples that illustrate how basic research progresses to clinical studies that directly impact patient health. Techniques such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and mouse transgenic and knockout models are explored in the context of human disease. This course is designed for pre-med, pre-dental, and pre-physical therapy students, as well as those considering a doctoral degree who wish to work with a translational research team.

BIO 191 meets each Friday from 9:20 to 10:10 a.m. at Scottsdale-Mayo. Students may leave campus on the 8:15 a.m., Tempe-Mayo shuttle and return to the Tempe campus by 11:15 a.m. The course meets in SJ-261 in the Johnson Research Building on the Scottsdale campus. 

For more information contact Lawrence Mandarino at (480) 965-2473 or lawrence.mandarino@asu.edu.

The School of Life Sciences and the Center for Metabolic Biology are research units in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.