Mid-term Written Assignment (Due Week 7)
Students will be provided with figures and figure legends from a published paper. Students will be required to interpret the data and come up with a title and an abstract. The abstract should contain the following information: i) brief introduction, ii) statement stating hypothesis of the research, iii) summary of the results and, iv) interpretation of the results. The abstract should be limited to 300 words. The purpose of this exercise is to develop your ability to analyze and interpret experimental data as well as formulating a hypothesis. Students can meet with the instructor to discuss the figures prior to submitting the assignment.
Final Oral Assignment (Presented in Class on Week 13)
Students will perform a literature search and select a research paper on humanized mice or cancer immunotherapy to present in class. The paper must be sent to the instructor before Week 9 for approval. In class, students will discuss their selected papers in 15-minute PowerPoint presentations (8–12 slides, with no more than 2–3 slides on background and significance) followed by a 5 minute Q&A session. When presenting the paper, highlight the significance of the findings to the field. Try to identify the definitive experiment that is most important to the major conclusion of the paper and then assess the experimental design, interpret the data and evaluate whether the authors were justified in their conclusion of the data. It is not necessary to present every figure of the paper. As a guide, the presentation should cover the following aspects: i) the significance of findings with respect to the field, ii) background and hypothesis, iii) key figure(s) and table(s) (highlighting technique and controls as a major part of the presentation), iv) major finding(s) and, v) conclusion(s) based on results. The expectations for this assignment will be briefly discussed during the first session. If needed, students will be able to meet with the instructor to discuss their presentations prior to the presentation date.