Biochemistry occupies a funky zone between biology, which everyone thinks they understand, and chemistry, which everyone loves to hate. While the name itself suggests that biochemistry is more specialized than either biology or chemistry alone, we can more formally define it as being a science that uses molecular theories/concepts to analyze the molecular behavior of biological systems or macromolecules. It is a chemical explanation of life’s process, and this is the perspective from which I teach this course.
There are two broad themes that we deal with in this course; 1) pathway regulation and integration, and 2) energy flux. These themes allow us to focus on the mechanistic details of how cells and tissues metabolize nutrients in the context of their physiological state. For any of the systems studied in this class, you should become more fluent in dealing with both the molecular details and the physiological implications for the organelle or organism. More specifically, when you have finished this course, you should be able to…
- differentiate among the regulatory mechanisms used for controlling metabolic pathways,
- illustrate how metabolic pathways interact within a cell as well as between tissues,
- explain the metabolic changes of a cell or tissue in response to physiological states.
Course Assignments
There are 2 exams required for this course; nothing fancy about them and the homework problems and case studies are used to help you prepare for them. There are also 2 required assignments; a lab project and a research proposal. For the lab, you spend your time developing the ability to develop an experimental system that yields reliable (i.e. reproducible) results. This culminates with a formal written lab report.
The research proposal is a library-type project intended to apply some of the basic biochemical concepts encountered in the course. You will develop a research hypothesis related to a molecular explanation or mechanism of a biological process and submit a 12-15 page research proposal.
Resource Links
| Course Syllabus | Research Proposal | Lab Syllabus |
| Course Schedule | Science Writing | Lab Projects |
| Exam 1 & Exam 2 | Citing References | Lab Notebook |
| Lab Report |