An eight-week on-line prep-course in Medical Biochemistry.
Program Overview: The Medical Biochemistry Prep-course was designed to provide a comprehensive and useful exposure of a medical biochemistry course to incoming medical students who (a) wish to get ahead of their biochemistry curriculum or content prior to matriculation, or (b) "at risk" incoming medical students who may have an admissions package suggestive that the student would struggle to be successful in the medical biochemistry course at their medical institution. We chose three criteria that suggest a student might be "at risk" or struggle in the actual Tulane medical biochemistry course. These criteria include (A) the lack of experience in biochemistry as an undergraduate, (B) a life science GPA <3.0, and (C) a lower MCAT score (<503). Are entry-level medical students at your medical institution admitted with any of these criteria? If so, we ask you to consider offering these students the opportunity to take our Medical Biochemistry Prep-course.Read More.
The course is broken into two course modules, Metabolic Biochemistry and Cellular Biochemistry. Depending on their background in Biochemistry, students can opt to take either or both course modules. The Metabolic Biochemistry module covers six content blocks, including (1) Fundamentals and Kinetics, (2) Carbohydrate Metabolism, (3) Energy Production, (4) Lipid Metabolism, (5) Nitrogen Metabolism, and (6) Complex Disease States. The Cellular Biochemistry module covers an additional six content blocks, including (1) DNA/RNA/Proteins, (2) Glycobiology, (3) Protein Trafficking and Structural Proteins, (4) Blood, (5) Signal Transduction, and (6) Cell Cycle and Cancer. If a student enrolls in only the Cellular Biochemistry module, some Metabolic Biochemistry Fundamentals topics are included.
Learning resources are all on-line and include study guides, reading synopses, streaming videos and assessment question banks.
The course director (David S. Franklin, PhD, 504- 988-8868, franklin@tulane.edu) is available by telephone or email to answer content questions. The senior program coordinator (Kelly Ragland, 504-988-0395, kraglan@tulane.edu) is available by telephone or email to answer enrollment and billing questions. To assess the student's performance at the completion of each module, an on-line exam is provided. The prep-course allows a student to gain previous exposure in Medical Biochemistry, prior to entering a similar course at their medical institution. It is not required that students pass the examinations. The exam is for assessment purposes only, and helps to gauge topics still problematic to the student so they can adjust future study strategies. For maximal benefit during medical school, it is recommended students work hard to do their best in the prep-course.
Course Dates:
May 20th, 2024 to July 19th, 2024 (BOTH modules)
May 20th, 2024 to June 19th, 2024 (Metabolic ONLY)
June 20th, 2024 to July 19th, 2024 (Cellular ONLY)
Miscellaneous Information: (1) Applications Process: The application and course fee must be submitted before the application is considered complete. Further instructions are supplied in the application form. Interested students should contact the department for additional information. (2) Housing: N/A. (3) High Speed Internet: All lectures are presented as streaming video, which are optimized for high bandwidth Internet connections (e.g., DSL, cable modem, T1). (4) Multimedia Computer: Since all lectures consist of both audio and video, computers must be capable of playing audio, and have speakers or headphones. The monitor must be capable of displaying a resolution of at least 1024x768 pixels. It is recommended that computers (either PC or Mac) be capable of playing Windows Media .asx and .wmv files, and have Windows Media Player 11 (or higher), Microsoft Office Word and PowerPoint, and Adobe Reader software. Exams will be given ONLINE.
"At risk" students who took the summer prep-course (N=9) performed better in the actual Tulane Medical Biochemistry course than "At risk" students who did not take the prep-course (control, N=9).
COURSE SCHEDULE 2024
