Gen 575: Fundamentals of Biomedical Instrumentation
An introduction to the fundamentals of instrumentation commonly used in biomedical research settings including mass spectrometers, optical microscopes, and DNA sequencers. Emphasis on a practical understanding of the physical and chemical properties that underlie operation and sources of uncertainty, noise, and error.
Michael MacCoss, PhD
Brian Beliveau, PhD
Spring Quarter 2026: Tuesdays & Thursdays 12:00–1:30 pm, Foege S-110
Background in molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, genetics, biochemistry, engineering, or related discipline and experience with quantitative problem solving.
There is no one textbook that can effectively cover the information presented in this course. To supplement the lecture content, the instructors will assign supplemental readings from reviews, historical papers, and/or free online sources.
Late homework will be accepted, but penalized. Specifically, each assignment is worth 100 points, from which 10 points will be deducted for each day (or fraction thereof) that you turn it in late. The maximum deduction for being late is 60 points (even if you are more than 6 days late).
Students may miss lectures without suffering a penalty to their participation grade provided that their absence is cleared with an instructor. While we realize it may not always be possile to do this in advance (eg, becauese of illness or emergency), but we please ask when possible that we be given >1 week notice. 5% will be deducted from the class participation grade for each uncleared absence.
Participation: 60%
Problem sets: 40% (4, worth 10% each).
Each 80-minute class will be divided between lecture content about an instrumentation topic, discussion, and problem solving exercises related to the lecture topic.
