2. Course Director :    Dr. C. Thompson, Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Physiology

3. Course Contact : Dr. Thompson will be available as primary contact for administrative correspondence.

                                    E-Mail : Carl_Thompson@NYMC.EDU

4. Catalog description : An elective course that explores the current concepts of nitric oxide biology. The course will emphasize subjects currently being researched by NYMC faculty with an introductory overview of nitric oxide’s role in mammalian biology.

5. Course description : The course Aims are four fold : 1) Provide an overview of the role of nitric oxide in mammalian biology, 2) explore in some detail specific areas of current research in the role of nitric oxide, 3) develop student comprehension of the current literature involving nitric oxide, and 4) improve the students’ ability to interpret the scientific literature and communicate in a scientific manner. The course will initially cover three (3) area "blocks" regarding nitric oxide. The first block will cover selected topics in the cellular aspects of nitric oxide biology, including topics in molecular biology, cell metabolism and cell signaling. The remaining two (2) "blocks" will be organ or system oriented. 

Each area block will consist of approximately 5 sessions of two (2) hours each. The first four (4) sessions will begin with a didactic lecture covering the background for the topic lasting about 1 hour. The second portion of the session will be the presentation of a current article (or more) of relevance to the general topic covered in the session with an emphasis on techniques and data interpretation. The fifth session, the area block "wrap-up", will be a round table discussion of current articles related to, but not necessarily directly covered within the topic of the area block. Each student (or group of students) will be responsible for a 15 minute presentation of a research article to an audience of classmates and faculty. The presentation will be followed by a brief question and answer period. Student presentations and discussion will count toward the final grade. Each student will have to write a brief (4-5 page) essay that critically evaluates the article for discussion which will be due at the beginning of each wrap-up session (total of three (3) ). The final session will be an in-class end-term examination to cover the general topic areas of the individual sessions. Students will receive feedback on both the scientific and literary aspects of their presentations and essays.

6. Number of Credits : This will be a two (2) credit course consisting of 2 student contact hours per week for fifteen (15) weeks. The contact time will consist of a mix of both didactic lectures and discussion of current literature. Approximately one-third (1/5) of the class sessions will be a "wrap-up" session in which the focus will be student discussions of the current literature related to each lecture block.

7. Pre-requisites and / or Co-requisites. The completion of Mammalian Physiology (PHYS1010 & 1020), its equivalent or permission of the course director is required to enroll in this course. The student should have some basic knowledge of Biochemistry.

8. Program electives : This course will satisfy requirements for elective courses in Physiology.

9. Required Textbooks or Reference Books : There will be no required textbooks. Articles from the scientific literature will be assigned or provided for each session at the end of the previous session. The reading assignments will consists of both review articles and current research articles.

10. Student evaluation : The students will be evaluated according to their in-class participation, presentations, essays and the final end-term examination according to the following criteria :

        In-class participation 5%

        In-class presentations 10%

        3 Essays 15 % each 45%

        Final end-term exam 40%

The essays and end-term examination questions will be evaluated by the participating faculty according to their respective lecture areas. The course directors will oversee the consistency of grading by individual faculty.