Reading
All of this is supplemental, not mandatory. Anything that is mandatory reading is marked with a gold star (⭐).
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2026An mRNA cancer vaccine succeeds in a Phase 3 trial for melanoma
Moderna and Merck's personalized mRNA vaccine, built from a patient's own tumor neoantigens and paired with the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab, significantly cut recurrence in resected stage IIB–IV melanoma. It is the first positive Phase 3 result for an individualized mRNA cancer therapy.
STAT News · Aug 19, 2026 -
2023Engineered bacteria that detect tumor DNA
Engineered naturally competent Acinetobacter baylyi to survive antibiotic selection only after taking up a mutant KRAS sequence specific to cancer, turning horizontal gene transfer into a living biosensor for tumor DNA. Referenced in the recombination and rearrangements lecture.
Cooper RM, et al. · Science 381(6658):682–686 -
2020Toxin–antidote elements across the tree of life
A review of selfish genetic elements that guarantee their own inheritance by pairing a toxin with a linked antidote, killing offspring that don't inherit them. Cited directly in the selfish genetic elements lecture.
Burga A, Ben-David E, Kruglyak L · Annual Review of Genetics 54:387–415 -
2018A CRISPR gene drive that collapses mosquito populations
A CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive targeting doublesex in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae spread to 100% of a caged population within 7–11 generations and drove it to complete collapse. Referenced in the selfish genetic elements lecture.
Kyrou K, Hammond AM, Galizi R, et al. · Nature Biotechnology 36:1062–1066 -
1997Dolly the sheep
The first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell, using a nucleus from a differentiated udder cell transferred into an enucleated egg. Discussed in the chromosomes/telomeres lecture alongside the finding that Dolly's telomeres were shorter than expected for her age.
Wilmut I, Schnieke AE, McWhir J, Kind AJ, Campbell KHS · Nature 385:810–813 -
1984Helicobacter pylori and peptic ulcers
Marshall and Warren found curved bacteria colonizing the stomach lining of ulcer patients, against the medical consensus that ulcers were caused by stress and acid alone. Unable to convince skeptics, Marshall drank a broth of the bacteria himself and developed gastritis, confirming Koch's postulates on himself.
Marshall BJ, Warren JR · The Lancet 323(8390):1311–1315 · Nobel Prize, 2005 -
1982The prion hypothesis
Stanley Prusiner proposed that the scrapie agent, and later the agent behind kuru and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, was an infectious protein with no genetic material of its own, able to convert normal protein into its misfolded shape. Covered in the prions and organelle genetics lecture.
Prusiner SB · Science 216(4542):136–144 · Nobel Prize, 1997 -
1952Replica plating
The Lederbergs pressed a velvet stamp onto a master plate of bacterial colonies, then onto fresh selective plates, giving direct visual proof that resistant mutants were already present before exposure to the selective agent.
Lederberg J, Lederberg EM · Journal of Bacteriology 63(3):399–406 -
1943The Luria–Delbrück fluctuation test
Challenged bacterial cultures with phage to ask whether resistance mutations arise spontaneously or only in response to selection. Variance in the number of resistant colonies across replicate cultures showed mutations exist before selection, founding bacterial genetics. Covered in the prokaryotes lecture.
Luria SE, Delbrück M · Genetics 28:491–511 · Nobel Prize, 1969
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2016The Gene: An Intimate History
Siddhartha Mukherjee traces the idea of the gene from Mendel's pea plants to sequencing and gene editing, threading in the history of eugenics and his own family's inherited mental illness. It covers most of the arc of this course, and is honest about how often the science has been put to ugly use.
Siddhartha Mukherjee · Nonfiction · Scribner -
2016When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgical resident, a year from finishing his training, when he was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer at 36. His memoir moves between the two sides of that line, the doctor reading a scan and the patient whose scan it is, and asks what makes a life worth living once you know how much of it is left. He died before finishing it.
Paul Kalanithi · Memoir · Random House -
2010The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Cells taken from Henrietta Lacks without her knowledge in 1951 became HeLa, the first immortal human cell line and one of the most used tools in biology. Rebecca Skloot tells that story alongside her family's, who learned of it only decades later and could not afford health insurance while her cells were sold worldwide.
Rebecca Skloot · Nonfiction · Crown -
2005Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro's novel follows three students at an English boarding school who slowly discover why they were raised: they are clones, created to donate their organs. It sits directly on top of the cloning and bioethics material in this course, and asks what we owe people we bring into existence for a purpose.
Kazuo Ishiguro · Novel · Faber and Faber