The field of Structural Biology sits at the interface of numerous disciplines within the biological and physical sciences and intends to elucidate the structure-function relationships between biomolecules. This course is designed to provide students interested in protein science with an understanding of the principles behind the production, isolation, and analysis of biomolecules, proteins specifically. To achieve this, the course mimics the workflow a protein biochemist would use for a new project aimed at producing, isolating, and characterizing a protein of biological interest. As such, the course intends to provide a broad overview and/or deep understanding of select portions of this workflow, which require various levels of knowledge of cell and molecular biology, protein biochemistry, and molecular biophysics. Note that this course does not cover techniques in structural biology like X-ray crystallography or cryo-EM and is thus appropriate for and tailored to any researcher in any field that requires pure and functional protein for their research.
This course provides instruction in the theory and practice of X-ray crystallographic diffraction methods for determining the three dimensional atomic structure of biological macromolecules.
A course for candidate doctoral students to be taken in the second semester of their second year of graduate studies in order to prepare, present, and defend the student’s proposal for dissertation research.
The field of structural biology investigates the structure-function relationships of important biological macromolecules at the molecular level. Understanding the interplay between structure and function provides valuable insight into fundamental biological processes that underlie healthy and diseased states. This course is designed to provide students with a structural biology-based view of pharmacology.
Course aimed to educate students on the finer points of analyzing, interpreting, and presenting data from structure-function based papers, as well as preparing students on the practical aspects of the presentation of scientific results.