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Prenatal Development: Human Embryology and Teratology
BIO 614

Text: The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology
Keith L. Moore, T. V. N. Persaud, William Schmitt
WB Saunders Company
Time and place: Room 328 Moore, Thursdays 8:00 to 11:00am

Course objectives:
The idea of this course is to introduce the student to the following concepts:

1.) Developmental processes, tissue interactions and organogenesis that occur during
early human development.

2.) The clinical syndromes, diagnosis, genetic testing, environmental influences and
therapy associated with abnormal human development.

3.) the experimental principles used to determine the molecular and genetic basis of
human congenital disease.

Grading: There will be two exams worth 20% of the final grade, a student presentations worth 25%, weekly homework assignments 10%, and class participation worth 25%.

Class Structure: 30-45 minutes of homework review
1 hour of lecture
10-15 minute break
1 hour for student presentation

Weekly schedule:

*Week 1: Introduction: Fertilization; Extraembryonic development, implantation early cell divisions.

*Week 2: Gastrulation, Early development of germ layers segmentation, formation of the somites.­­­­­

Week 3: Development of Peripheral Nervous System.______________________________________

Week 4: Embryonic Folding __________________________________________________________

Week 5: Development of the Heart_____________________________________________________

Week 6: Development of the Vasculature________________________________________________

Week 7: Development of the Gastrointestinal Tract_______________________________________

Week 8: Development of the Urogenital System___________________________________________
Take home mid-term exam covering first seven weeks.

Week 9: Development of the Limbs____________________________________________________

Week 10: Development of the Skull and Head ___________________________________________

Week 11: Development of the Skull and Head II__________________________________________

Week 12: Development of the Eyes and Ears _____________________________________________

Week 13: Development of the Brain and Cranial Nerves____________________________________

Week 14: Development of the Integumentary System______________________________________

Week 15:

Week 16: Final Exam


Paper Selection process:

- Choose papers discussing relevant clinical examples of developmental diseases. The best examples would be those associated with molecularly characterized genes i.e. e. holocephally or with a known chemical or environmental effect i.e. Fetal alcohol syndrome.

- You can pick one disease or syndrome or many related or tell a story with a variety of associated diseases.

- What I want you to talk about is the diagnosis, the characterization of the disease, the phenotype and the flaw in the developmental process and the treatment if any. You may also want to investigate the basic research behind a particular disease in an appropriate model system.