Description
Aims:
After the course it is expected that the students know the basic structural features of the major biological macromolecules and understand the physical- chemical principles underlying the relationship between structure and function. The students should also understand the strategy, regulation, and bioenergetics of the central metabolic pathway. It is expected that the students apply the concepts developed in the lectures to the analysis of experimental results obtained in the laboratory classes and to problem solving.
At the end of this course the student should:
- understand the structural organization and composition of proteins;
- know the techniques used in the purification and characterization of proteins and how to evaluate the efficiency of a purification process;
- understanding the mechanisms of oxygen transport/storage by hemoglobin and myoglobin and distinguish between cooperative and uncooperative interaction;
- using mathematical models, to calculate the kinetic parameters of Michaelis-Menten enzymes in the absence and presence of inhibitors, and evaluate the effect of temperature and pH on the reaction rate;
- know the structures of simple sugars and polysaccharides;
- Understand the structure of nucleic acids and their physicochemical properties; the flow of genetic information from gene to protein;
- be aware of the structures of lipids and their organization; biological membranes and biological transport;
- Understand metabolism and bioenergetics: central metabolic pathway and ATP synthesis (glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, the citric acid cycle, electron transport chain and ATPS synthesis)