Courses

See also listings under Molecular and Cellular Biology Program.

523 General Biochemistry
Structure and function of biological molecules, especially proteins, lipids and carbohydrates. Important concepts include bioenergetics, biological catalysis, and metabolic pathways as interacting regulated systems. Having taken a full year of organic chemistry (or second semester concurrently) is strongly recommended. Credit, 3.

623 Advanced General Biochemistry (spring sem)
Advanced treatment of selected topics in biochemistry, with readings taken from the current literature. Topics include protein structure-function, protein folding and processing, enzyme kinetics, and the study of metabolic processes (pathways and their regulation) with a molecular genetic approach. Students must have taken at least a one-semester course in upper division biochemistry and MOLCLBIO 642. Credit, 4.

642 Advanced Molecular Biology (fall sem)
Structure, biosynthesis, and function of nucleic acids and the translational apparatus. DNA replication; gene organization; chromatin structure; RNA transcription, regulation of gene expression; protein biosynthesis; mRNA, tRNA, and ribosomes. Credit, 4.

657 Drug Design (spring sem)
Survey the current picture in pharmaceutical research, including how targets are selected, how the rational and combinatorial methods are harnessed, as well as how the industry is evolving in the post-genomic era. The instructors will provide background and introduce various topics, which will be discussed by a series of invited lecturers who are active in drug design and discovery.

681-687 Journal Clubs
Credit, 1.