BMB Graduate Group - Fall 2009 Course Listings


	FALL 2009
Classes begin Wednesday, September 9, 2009 First half classes: September 9 – October 28 Second half classes: October 29 – December 22 BMB 508 – Macromolecular Biophysics Van Duyne/Wand M/W, 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. 255 Anatomy-Chemistry Building Course starts Wednesday, September 9 Prerequisites: Senior undergraduate or graduate level biochemistry or biophysics This course introduces students to the physical and chemical properties of proteins, nucleic acids and membranes. The emphasis of the course is on thermodynamics and structure, with several lectures devoted to the biophysical methods used to study biological macromolecules. This is intended to be a first course for graduate students with an undergraduate background in physics, chemistry or biology. The companion course, BMB 509, which is taught in the spring, builds on this course and covers kinetics, dynamics, and catalysis. BMB 518 (CAMB 615) – Protein Conformation Diseases Argon & Ischiropoulos W, 3 – 5 p.m. 104 Anatomy-Chemistry Building Course starts Wednesday, September 16 Prerequistes: BIOM 600 or equivalent; graduate students only and with permission of course director Protein misfolding and aggregation has been associated with a number of human diseases, ranging from Alzhemier's and Parkinson's disease to Respiratory Distress Syndrome, alpha(1)-antitrypsin deficiency and "mad cow" disease. This course will include lectures, directed readings and student presentations to cover seminal and current papers on the cell biology of conformational diseases including topics such as aggresome formation, protein degradation pathways (proteosome vs ER-associated degradation), effects of protein aggregation on cell function and mutations which lead to autosomal dominant diseases. BMB 567 (CHEM567) – Bioinorganic Chemistry Dmochowski Tu/Th, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon 109 Chemistry Building Course starts Thursday, September 10 This course covers selected topics in bioinorganic chemistry. Special emphasis is placed on dioxygen chemistry and electron transfer processes. Course topics include: 1) oxygen uptake and utilization; 2) oxygen transport; 3) oxygenand O atom incorporation into substrates; 4) metalloenzyme-catalyzed C-C bond formation; 5) the metallobiochemistry of DNA; 6) metal-sulfide proteins; 7) manganese containing metalloproteins: 8) photosystem II, light-driven electron transfer and the biological water-splitting reaction; 9) biological electron transfer; 10) electron transfer theory; 11) mechanisms of energy storage and release; and 12) long-distance electron transfer reactions. BMB 585 – Wistar Institute Cancer Biology Course: Signaling Pathways in Cancer Kissil & Dahmane Th, 1:30 – 4:00 p.m. Wistar Institute, Auditorium Course starts Thursday, September 10 2009 course outline This course is intended to provide foundational information about the molecular basis of cancer. When necessary the significance of this information for clinical aspects of cancer is also discussed. The main themes center around signal transduction pathways and mechanisms governing cell behavior in cancer. These topics will be discussed at the molecular, cellular and whole organism levels.The course is taught by the organizers and guest lecturers from universities and research institutions in the Northeast. Following every lecture, students present a research paper related to the topic of that lecture. The course is intended for first and second year graduate students, but all graduate students are welcome to attend. BMB 614 – Membrane Structural Biology Lemmon Tu/F, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. 1001 Stellar-Chance (first half of semester; 1/2 credit) Course starts Tuesday, September 15 A survey of biological membranes and membrane-associated processes. The composition and physical properties of cell membranes will be considered, as will structural aspects of membrane proteins. The functions of different membranes in the cell will be discussed, with an emphasis on a biophysical understanding of the processes. BMB 618 – Applications of High Resolution NMR Spectroscopy to Problems in Structural Biology Wand Tu, 12 - 2 p.m. 204 Stellar-Chance Labs Course starts Tuesday, September 15, 2009 2009 Lecture Schedule Prerequisites: Undergraduate biochemistry and physical chemistry and BMB 601, or permission of instructor. A lecture-based course designed to introduce graduate students to applications of modern high-resolution multinuclear and multidimensional NMR spectroscopy to problems in structural biology. The course will first introduce classical definitions and descriptions of nuclear magnetic resonance and a convenient formalism for the analysis of advanced NMR experiments. Concepts and applications of multidimensional homonuclear 1H NMR and multidimensional heteronuclear spectroscopy of proteins and nucleic acids will be described. Resonance assignment strategies including analysis of triple resonance spectroscopy will be covered. The origin, measurement and extraction of structural restraints and their use in structure determination will be surveyed and illustrated with recent examples. BMB 619 – Protein Folding Axelsen/Englander Second half of semester (1/2 credit) Tu/F, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. 1001 Stellar-Chance Labs Course starts Friday, October 30 Introduction to the folding of soluble proteins mainly but also membrane proteins; critical readings in the current literature and important earlier literature; class discussion of papers with didactic lectures as required. Exposure to principles and use of equilibrium, kinetics, thermodynamics and the range of biophysical technologies as they occur in the real literature. BMB 650 – Current Biochemical Topics Black and Shorter W, 12:15 – 1:30 p.m. (255 Anat-Chem) Th, 12 – 1 p.m. (Austrian Auditorium, CRB) 1:00 – 2:00 p.m., (JF Library - 248 Anat-Chem) Course starts Wednesday, September 16 Participation in the "Dr. George W. Raiziss Biochemical Rounds", a weekly seminar program sponsored by the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Program deals with a wide range of modern biochemical and biophysical topics presented by established investigators selected from our faculty and by leading scientists from other institutions. BMB 700 (CHEM 700) (PHRM 630) – Selected Topics in Chemistry Petersson/Cooperman/DeGrado Tu/Th, 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. 119 Chemistry Building Course starts Thursday, September 10 2009 course outline Prerequisites: a strong background in undergraduate chemistry is required and at least one semester of biological chemistry is very desirable. The course explores how recent developments in our abilities to make and analyze biologically important macromolecules provide new approaches to drug development and discovery. Tutorial, Independent Study and Lab Rotation Courses BMB 598 – Tutorial Gitler Literature studies in a specific research area under supervision of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Graduate Group faculty, concluded by a written summary and a seminar presentation. Course offered fall, spring and summer semesters. BMB 699 – Laboratory Rotation Shorter Supervised mini-projects for graduate students in BMB, seminar presentation required. Course offered fall, spring and summer semesters. BMB 799 – Independent Study (YRS 1- 2) BMB 999 – Independent Study (YRS 3 – 5)