anybody taken genetics yet?

[tae1703]

at my school gen chem and precalculus are prereqs for genetics. im taking it next sem and dont know what to expect. so what does it involve?

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[Sundarban1]

at my school gen chem and precalculus are prereqs for genetics. im taking it next sem and dont know what to expect. so what does it involve?

Punnett squares...

 

[stoic]

you'll probably spend about half of the time doing molecular genetics and half of the time doing medellian genetics (crosses, probabilities, population genetics)

i'd say that it's generally a moderately difficult course, it won't kill you.

if you have more specific questions, fire away

 

[MadameLULU]

Punnett squares...

interesting avatar

 

[UCLAstudent]

I took it a year ago. Stoic is correct: the first half of the class was Mendelian genetics (recombination, population genetics, sex-linked traits, etc.). The second half emphasized the molecular aspect of genetics (bacterial genetics, transposons, etc.).

I'm really excited about a human genetics class that I am taking next quarter!

 

[MedicineBird]

i think you'll have an easier time of it if you've already taken stats

 

[tanyas]

I took it a year ago. Stoic is correct: the first half of the class was Mendelian genetics (recombination, population genetics, sex-linked traits, etc.). The second half emphasized the molecular aspect of genetics (bacterial genetics, transposons, etc.).
Human Genetics (156) at UCLA is a great class....when I took it, Merriam and Lusis were teaching

I'm really excited about a human genetics class that I am taking next quarter!

 

[Bubchik]

I took it a year ago. Stoic is correct: the first half of the class was Mendelian genetics (recombination, population genetics, sex-linked traits, etc.). The second half emphasized the molecular aspect of genetics (bacterial genetics, transposons, etc.).

I'm really excited about a human genetics class that I am taking next quarter!

I will be in that class too! i'm not that excited about genetics as you are, but people say it should not be that bad.
see u in class

 

[stoic]

at my school gen chem and precalculus are prereqs for genetics. im taking it next sem and dont know what to expect. so what does it involve?

oh yea, also... in regards to the prereqs, i'd guess that precalc is so you've had enough math to do the probability calculations. as for gen chem... i have no idea. i don't really know what in genetics has much to do with gen chem. there's a little bit of organic related material in molecular genetics (and i do mean only a bit), but not really any gen chem. maybe they want it so you've had even more math practice... who knows.

 

[N1DERL&]

Youll enjoy it! But make sure you do the practice problems!! I liked the class but I had enough of snapdragons, black cows with brown spots, and rabbits!!

 

[blump]

oh yea, also... in regards to the prereqs, i'd guess that precalc is so you've had enough math to do the probability calculations. as for gen chem... i have no idea. i don't really know what in genetics has much to do with gen chem. there's a little bit of organic related material in molecular genetics (and i do mean only a bit), but not really any gen chem. maybe they want it so you've had even more math practice... who knows.

just know your molecular biology and you should be OK. Genetics is great, the most interesting undergrad bio class in my opinion. good luck

 

[wends]

genetics was really really interesting, esp the molecular part.....but i took a spanking in it cause i overestimated my abilities and underestimated the material lol.

 

[tae1703]

i think you'll have an easier time of it if you've already taken stats

ive taken calc II but i guess its not the same as stats, so nvm. i dont think we'll be doing derivatives and integrals

 

[tae1703]

thanks for the insight everyone.

 

[cfdavid]

Another thing to keep in mind is how many advances in different kinds of gene therapies we'll see, and hopefully be able to implement as docs, in our lifetime. I'd say it's a very applicable class. Looking forward to taking it myself.

 

[stoic]

Another thing to keep in mind is how many advances in different kinds of gene therapies we'll see, and hopefully be able to implement as docs, in our lifetime. I'd say it's a very applicable class. Looking forward to taking it myself.

gene therapy (at least at any indepth level) is a topic for pharmacuetical chemsitry classes, not intro genetics

 

[Blackstars]

Make sure your professor is not into population genetics, trust me pop gen is tough. I ended of getting a B because of all the pop gen we had to do. Good luck

 

[Noeljan]

I loved genetics
I guess it would vary between schools and course numbers what is covered. I think having biochem (and organic), cell and molecular helped me. Honestly I really feel I can see where all of the sciences I have taken that I understood tie into all my courses, but I guess that is more of a personal opinion. There was not that much population genetics in my course (but a little bit in the beginning), it was broken up into thirds (we have three different professors for the course). The first half was probablities, DNA structure, hybridization, start of mutations, recombination (calculations for those), etc. Second half was more in depth of replication, transcription and translation (prok and euk) basically the entire mechanisms and mutations in them, etc. Third half was splicing more in depth, transposons, lambda phage, extranuclear inheritance, more in depth DNA structure and mechanisms (like active vs inactive regions on genes, experiments, differnt types of promoters/enhancers), oh we also got into cDNA libraries and bioinformatics at the end. I really like my course, and it was a lot of paying attention involved but that is what made it a great course. Understanding the material was vital
good luck.
ps no you don't have to be good at math for genetics, there is math but it is doable with some practice. the genetics lab is where more math may come into play(gen chem equations)
haha another ps: organic and biochem come into play a lot I thought during some mutations. Just understanding a deanimation could lead to a transition, and also knowing tautomers, dimers, etc. trust me you may not know what i am talking about now, but it helps.

 

[cfdavid]

gene therapy (at least at any indepth level) is a topic for pharmacuetical chemsitry classes, not intro genetics

Who said intro? Also, I meant that to know genetics will aid in our understanding behind gene therapy and theraputic cloning etc. I realize that the clinical focus is beyond anything undergrad, but the foundations should be laid.

 

[UCLAstudent]

tanyas, those are the teachers for the class this winter! I am so excited, you have no idea! (I realize that the dork in me is on display right now, hahaha.)

Bubchik, that is awesome that we will be in the same class! I'll have to say hi to you sometime.

 

[Noeljan]

goodluck