Coursemaster:
Linda J. Pike, Ph.D.
Tu,Th 8:30-10 am
Moore Auditorium
Pre-requisites: Coursemaster approval is required for students other than medical students. 3 units.
This course is designed primarily for medical students and will
cover fundamental aspects of biochemistry and cell biology. The
course begins with a treatment of protein structure and folding
and includes coverage of protein folding diseases. The
principles of enzyme kinetics and regulation are then discussed
to round out the protein chemistry section of the course.
The second section of the course examines the basic metabolic
pathways that are important in metabolic diseases. The section
begins with a discussion of the principles of cell signaling
that are involved in the regulation of most biochemical and
cell biological pathways. The pathways relating to glucose
homeostasis are then studied and this is followed by an examination
of the metabolism of fats and the provision of metabolic energy by the
TCA cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. The metabolism section ends
with a discussion of folates which are used as building blocks in many
biosynthetic pathways followed by an example of their use in the
clinically important pathways of nucleotide metabolism.
The synthesis of nucleotides provides the segway into the
third section of the course which deals with the function of
cellular organelles. The section starts with the utilization of
nucleotides in the process of transcription. The subsequent
lectures follow the path taken by the nascent mRNA. The initial
lecture discusses the structure of cellular membranes as a prelude
to examining the process of protein biosynthesis, and in particular
the biosynthesis of membrane proteins. This is followed by a study of
post-translational modifications, protein targeting and protein transport
and secretion.
In the fourth section of the course, a macroscopic view of the
cell is taken as the class examines cell shape and motility as
well as the integration of cells into organs via cell-matrix
interactions. Cancer and metastasis provides the organizing
principle for examining the role of cell motility and
cell-matrix interactions in a medical context. The cancer theme is
continued in the study of cell proliferation which includes an
examination of cell cycle control and the role of tumor
suppressors and apoptosis in cell growth and tumor development.
The biochemistry of DNA replication and repair is then examined
more explicitly.
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