Medical Genetic Spring 23/24 – Okan uni

Medical genetics

Students will learn about Mendelian laws of inheritance, which describe how traits are passed from parents to offspring through dominant and recessive alleles. They will explore Mendel's principles of segregation and independent assortment, which explain how genes are distributed during reproduction and how traits are inherited in predictable patterns. In studying human genome organization, students will understand that the human genome is organized into 23 pairs of chromosomes, with each chromosome containing numerous genes. They will learn about the structure of chromosomes, including the DNA double helix, chromatin, and the role of genes in encoding proteins and regulating cellular functions. Students will also explore chromosomal abnormalities, such as aneuploidy (e.g., Down syndrome, which is caused by an extra chromosome 21) and structural abnormalities (e.g., deletions, duplications, and translocations). They will learn how these abnormalities can lead to genetic disorders and affect development and health. Lastly, students will study non-Mendelian inheritance patterns, which include phenomena like incomplete dominance, codominance, and polygenic inheritance. These patterns describe how multiple genes and environmental factors can influence traits in more complex ways than the simple Mendelian models.