BIOPHYSICS 370

Course overview:

Physical chemistry is having a major impact on all areas of science that concern the properties of molecules. In particular, the design of pharmaceutical drugs, understanding detailed structure-function relationships of proteins, RNA and DNA are highly dependent on the development of physical chemistry concepts. This course introduces students to physical chemistry (and to the pioneers of these theories) using a biomolecular approach.

Topics and concepts covered include:

• Underlying principles of Quantum Mechanics
• Basic principles of Spectroscopy (electronic, vibrational, rotational and magnetic resonance)
• Electron/proton tunneling in enzymes.
• Simplified Molecular Orbital calculations on small organic molecules
• Laws of statistical and classical thermodynamics
• Workings of (bio)molecular machines.

Mathematical topics are reviewed before using them to develop biophysical chemistry concepts. The objective of this course is to provide students with the ability to understand research problems in biotechnology and medical fields from a physical chemistry perspective