PhD Written Qualifying Exam - Cardiac Electrophysiology
At the end of my 2nd year of Cardiovascular Engineering PhD, I took an 8-hour Written Exam covering Cellular Electrophysiology, Bioelectricity, and Systems Physiology (Cardiovascular System). Major topics included Cardiac Electrophysiology with a focus on Ion Channels, Cell-cell Coupling, Gap Junctions, Excitation-Contraction Coupling, Muscle Contraction, and ECG.
After months of collecting, organizing, and creating materials for this exam, it feels wasteful to keep them exclusively to myself. I'm sharing them here hoping that if you're struggling with Cardiac Electrophysiology, you might find these resources useful:
My ultimate "weapon": 184-page random questions with answers (contact me if you need an MS Word file)
Book – Bioelectromagnetism: Principles and Applications of Bioelectric and Biomagnetic Fields, by Jaakko Malmivuo, Robert Plonsey
Book – Bioelectricity: A Quantitative Approach, by Robert Plonsey, Roger C. Barr
And other materials not for public dissemination (Contact me if you need...)
Experiments Related
Though I am an engineering student, my research focuses on molecular biology, specifically basic cell biology. The materials I work with primarily involve wet lab techniques:
Essentials of actin filaments and mitochondria experiments
These documents are written in informative, lay language, making them easy to comprehend. The actin document is authored by Dartmouth's Professor Henry Higgs, a prominent guy in actin biology. The latter was written by Alexander Panov, a Russian professor with almost 60 years of experience working with mitochondria. These two documents have been invaluable during my Ph.D., saving me tons of time. They not only provide protocols on "what to do" but also offer answers to "why I do this" and "how I can improve my experiments."
I've learned that sometimes, "strangers are the ones who help me the most."Book – Mitochondria: Practical Protocols / Edition 2 by Dejana Mokranjac, Fabiana Perocchi, Springer Protocols: This book provides simple steps to study how mitochondria work in different organisms, with easy-to-follow instructions and helpful tips.