This course deconstructs current and emerging diseases in terms of the malfunctioning of nucleic acids, proteins, and membranes and interactions between them. The diseases covered will include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (or Mad-Cow disease), HIV, a variety of bacterial infections, and other biological disorders. A variety of biophysical methods for dissecting diseases at the atomic level will be surveyed, including NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, single molecule imaging, and computational methods.
The course will emphasize how a basic biophysical understanding of diseases can guide the rational design of therapeutics, to include:
- Infectious diseases
- The Molecules of Life: Biophysical Principles
- Viral Infections
- Bacterial Infections
- Health Conditions
- Rational Approaches to Drug Discovery
Crs Requirements: Biweekly problem-solving homework assignments, assigned readings, weekly quizzes, two exams (20 pts each), one final paper (5-7 pages) that critically explores the biophysical basis for a student-chosen human disease and discusses how an in-depth biophysical understanding of the disease process can help in the rational design of therapeutics. Students will also present their final papers in class (30 pts ).
Textbooks:
- Cellular Signaling in Health and Disease (Springer, 2009), Beckerman, Martin;
- Methods in Molecular Biophysics: Structure, Dynamics, Function (Cambridge, 2007), Serdyuk, Igor N.; Zaccai, Nathan R.; Zaccai, Joseph.
Intended Audience: Upper level undergraduates and graduate students in the biological, biophysical, and biochemical sciences.
Class Format: Lecture format 3 hpw