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Biology (BIO 101) is a molecular and cellular biology course, which provides all the concepts required for a scientific understanding of living systems. This course aims both at preparing students for the biology option, which is available in the Mathematics & Computer Science and Mathematics & Physics majors, and at raising awareness about socio-economic issues related to biology, such as health, ethics or bioengineering.

 Cell Biology (BIO 201) introduces students to the mechanisms that cells use to regulate the physical properties of their dynamic architecture, to produce force and move, to compartmentalize and transport proteins, to regulate growth and death, and to communicate with their environment. The course focuses on human cells, and emphasis is placed on human diseases where appropriate. Upon course completion, students have a comprehensive understanding of the function and architecture of cells.

Because experimentation is at the heart of progress in cell biology, 50% of classes contain practical work, completed over the course of the semester. The intention is to allow students to develop their knowledge in the subject area, to acquire sound scientific reasoning, and to become familiar with the main techniques of modern cell biology, like quantitative microscopy imaging and computer-assisted data analysis.

Prerequisite: BIO101 & BIO201

Molecular Genetics (BIO 202) provides an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms by which living organisms store, express and transmit genetic information and the basis of human genetic diseases. Lectures will cover a range of topics, including the molecular aspects of DNA replication and transcription, translation of RNA into protein and gene regulations. This course will also cover the latest methodologies used in genomics analysis, like DNA sequencing. Because experimentation is at the heart of progress in cell biology, 50% of classes contain practical work, completed over the course of the semester. The intention is to allow students to develop their knowledge in the subject area, to acquire sound scientific reasoning, and to combine the modern techniques in molecular genetics with computer-assisted data analysis.

Prerequisite: BIO201 and BIO202
The primary goal of the Biology practicals is to provide an overview of the most recent techniques to complement the practicals of BIO201 and BIO202. During this course, students will participate in research projects in the École Polytechnique laboratories where they will learn some of the most advanced techniques in biology under the supervision of researchers.

The biomedicine course will include a series of lectures covering the molecular and cellular mechanisms of diseases and therapeutic strategies to treat them. In parallel, students will actively participate to research performed in laboratories of Ecole Polytechnique on campus. All research topics are related to biomedicine.

Teaching supervisor: Arnaud Echard

This course lets you discover a core scientific discipline, biology, and prepares you for several other 2nd year biology courses, as well as for more advanced, 3rd year programs offered by the Biology department of Biology. This is a basic biology course, designed for students from all scientific origins.

It will reveal the logic of the living world and will show how biology, an expanding scientific discipline, is developing more and more at the interface with physics, chemistry, informatics, mathematics and engineering sciences.

The course will show the distinctive features and the informative molecules (DNA, RNA and proteins) shared by all living organisms. The main regulations controlling RNA and protein production will be detailed. This will enable us to understand how cells regulate their gene expression to answer their needs and adapt to environmental changes. It presents, in a progressive and sometimes deliberately simplified way, the major advances in the biological sciences of the 20th and 21st centuries. The course also provides an understanding of the major contemporary societal issues linked to the life sciences.

Course Language : French.

Experimentation is central to progress in biology. It enables working hypotheses to be tested. Thanks to cycles of hypothesis verification and refinement, we end up with predictive models, despite the great complexity of the objects studied: living beings.

We cannot guarantee that a student will be registered for a specific theme. The distribution of students is based on supply and demand. The following themes are likely to be opened:

- Bioluminescence:

The chemical energy extracted from organic molecules by living beings can be transformed into thermal energy, mechanical energy, electrical energy, and even light energy. This last property is more widespread than we think since it exists in several hundred species as diverse as bacteria, fungi and animals. We will study the green fluorescent protein (GFP) of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. We will use the tools of genetic engineering, biochemistry and biophysics to understand the origin of this fluorescence and how to exploit it in various biotechnological fields. Firefly tail luciferin will also be discussed to understand the origin and mechanism of its bioluminescence.

-Antibodies: from immune defense to clinical diagnosis:

Antibodies, central molecules in the humoral immune response, play an essential role in the prevention of infections. Moreover, thanks to their precise characterization, they have also become essential tools for research, medical diagnosis and therapy, in particular anti-cancer. This Modal aims to characterize the biochemical properties of antibodies as well as to illustrate several examples of the use of antibodies in research and medical diagnosis. The use of a large number of classical techniques of biochemistry and biology also make this Modal an excellent introduction to laboratory work.

- Intracellular imaging:

The organization and dynamics of the cytoskeleton play an essential role in many eukaryotic cell life processes, such as migration, division or intracellular transport. The objective of this Modal is to observe the different components of the cytoskeleton (microtubule and actin filaments) inside human cells. It is an opportunity to introduce multiple techniques in cell biology (culture of human cells, immunocytochemistry, transfection), microscopy and digital modeling.

- Cloning:

This modal allows you to discover the key tools and techniques used daily in laboratories. Baker's yeast dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is an essential protein conserved in all eukaryotes. Thanks to its key role in cell growth and metabolism, DHFR is of pharmacological interest. It is the target of the few drugs that are used for the treatment of a wide spectrum of diseases. We will clone the gene coding for the eukaryotic DHFR in a bacterium, we will induce its expression and we will purify the protein produced. Finally, an enzymatic test will make it possible to functionally characterize the purified protein.

-Synthetic biology: design and construction of synthetic genetic oscillators:

Synthetic biology aims to design and build artificial life forms that perform a given function. Gene regulatory networks are sets of genes that interact with each other and with other molecules, via their expression products, allowing mutual control of their expression levels. One possible approach to synthetic biology is to modify existing genetic networks or design new ones, opening the way to the design of new biological functions. This is a very active area of ​​research with many potential applications. The purpose of this Modal is the study and fabrication of synthetic genetic oscillators, that is to say networks of unnatural genes with an oscillating behavior. It uses the following methods and techniques: modeling of gene networks, genetic engineering, cell culture, fluorescence microscopy, image analysis.

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all living organisms. The aim of this course is to describe how the cell is organized and functions, and how a complex organism is built up from these elementary building blocks. This course introduces students to cell biology and developmental biology, central disciplines in the life sciences, at the interface with many other aspects of biology, as well as with physics, chemistry, computer science and engineering.

The main topics covered will be

  • The cell is the most basic structure necessary for life. It is therefore interesting to understand what a cell is, how it is organized and how it functions. 6 lectures are dedicated to these questions. In particular, they cover
    - the internal organization of the cell (membranes, compartmentalization, trafficking)
    - the integration of the cell into its environment
    - Cell division and death. These two major cellular "functions" provide an opportunity to see how the cell can use simple molecules and chemical reactions to control complex functions and make decisions such as dividing or committing suicide.
    The cell is also the building block from which more complex organisms are constructed. Developmental biology seeks to understand this process and to answer questions such as
    - How is it that the adult organism contains so many different cells, even though they all originate from a single cell?
    - How do axes of symmetry and differences along these axes (head on one side, feet on the other) arise? Are these axes present in the egg?
    - How can we build complex shapes and organs instead of just a bunch of cells?

BIO451 provides a solid, recommended foundation for the other biology courses in the second year and in the third year. It complements BIO452. It is also an opportunity to explore many current topics: cloning, stem cells, regenerative medicine, crispr, gene therapy, cancer, epigenetics...