Peer Review in the Life Sciences (BIOL-Z620)
This graduate course will focus on the practice of peer review of scientific manuscripts, which is essential for what is, currently, by far the most widely accepted means of communication of scientific results: publishing papers in scientific journals. The process of peer review plays an important role in refining the body of work prior to final publication. Yet, peer review is rarely taught to students in a formal setting, and is largely dependent on individual labs and mentors, leading to variable standards of peer review. Reflecting the evolution of technology, society and scientific culture, preprints have gained popularity in the life sciences in recent years, resulting in a shift in how progress in the life sciences is communicated, and raising questions of how we, as a scientific community, may work towards optimizing the peer review process in the life sciences. This class will use the preprint server BioRxiv as a platform for formally teaching students how to peer review manuscripts in a critical and constructive way. Students will compose reviews that will be posted (either named or anonymously through Alizée Malnoë acting as an “editor”) as comments associated with the preprint on BioRxiv. This class is modeled on James Fraser course at UCSF.
Spring 2025 – The PREreview club IU Bloomington Biology was created! Here are the reviews we worked on and published:
https://zenodo.org/records/15198580
https://zenodo.org/records/15242123
https://zenodo.org/records/15278010
https://zenodo.org/records/15352227
https://zenodo.org/records/15368921
Spring 2026 – The PREreview club IU Bloomington Biology is thriving! Here are the reviews we worked on and published:
https://zenodo.org/records/20141694
https://zenodo.org/records/19937904
https://zenodo.org/records/19721032
https://zenodo.org/records/19637706
https://zenodo.org/records/19489089
Ecological Plant Physiology (BIOL-B371)
Life on Earth is solar powered by the process of photosynthesis, the process by which plants produce the biomass that sustains other life forms. Plants are foundational to the sustainability of Earths ecosystems as well as the future of humankind. This undergraduate course is designed to guide you toward an understanding and appreciation of plant physiology. Physiology refers to the physical, mechanical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. It is a subdiscipline of biology that investigates the way organisms work from the molecular and cellular to the organ to the whole-organism levels. The focus of this course is on vascular land plants, although references to other autotrophic organisms may be made to understand underlying principles. As much as possible the concepts will be presented in the context of how plants interact with their environment. Specific topics covered include photosynthesis, water and nutrient relations, responses to environmental signals such as light and temperature, and responses to abiotic and biotic stresses.