CHEM 6304 Section 5731
Biomembranes: Structure and Biophysics
Meets: M W F 8th Period MAT 0005
Exam 4A
3 credit course
Recommended Texts:
Biomembranes: Molecular Structure and Function
Robert B. Gennis
The Structure of Biological Membranes
Philip L. Yeagle
PLEASE DO NOT RECALL BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY. THE HEALTH SCIENCE LIBRARY HAS 1 COPY OF EACH BOOK. PLEASE SHARE THE TEXTS, OTHERWISE I WILL BE FORCED TO PUT THEM ON RESERVE.
Semester Holidays (and other days off)
Jan 16th - M – Martin Luther King Day
Feb 20-24th – (Biophysical Society Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah)
March 13th-17th – Spring Break
April 12th (room occupied)
Grading:
20% Class Participation
30% In-class presentations (depending upon enrollment, 1-2 30 minute presentations)
25% Midterm (in-class)
25% Final (in-class)
Midterm is scheduled for Friday, March 10th.
Schedule for student presentations. All student presentations will occur during the Friday lecture period. Students will be graded by me as well as one another. I will have an evaluation sheet that each registered student will complete per presentation. You will NOT put your name on the sheet, but a code that only I will recognize. The presenter will get all feed back from evaluations. In this manner, the presenter will not know who gave what review, but I will. A significant part of your in-class participation grade will come from the questions that you ask of the presenter.
The presentations will be focused on a topic and a technique. The presenter can choose a current paper from the literature or from a text or review article. The purpose(s) of this exercise are (1) to present more current information than is in the recommended texts, (2) to practice public speaking, (3) to promote group learning, and (3) to learn how to critically read the literature. The time for each presentation is only 25 minutes so you must be focused.
The presenter is required to pass out any pertinent literature (first cleared by me), 1 week prior to the presentation. Failure to meet this 1 week deadline will result in a 20% deduction of the grade for the presentation.
The following is a list of journals that you may find useful in locating an interesting article to present. The other method that I recommend for finding an interesting article is to look at the authors of the chapters in the texts we are using and to find one of their more current articles. Have fun!
Chemistry and Physics of Lipids
Biochimica et biophysica acta. Biomembranes
Biochimica et biophysica acta. Lipids and lipid metabolism
Langmuir
Biophysical Journal
Biochemistry
Nature Structural Biology
Journal of Physical Chemistry
Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences
The following is a recommended list of topics with presentation dates. The goal is to have the presentation topics relate to current lecture presentations. I will introduce most topics and techniques in lecture. Your job is to give a clear, thorough example of a recent application in the literature.
Week # / Date / Topic/Technique / Presenter 1 / Presenter 23 / Jan 27 / Lipid mesophases
DSC/NMR /X-ray
4 / Feb 3 / Detergent-lipid phases
Dynamic light scattering
5 / Feb 10 / Anesthetics-small molecule partitioning
EPR /NMR
6 / Feb 17 / Cholesterol/lipid rafts
Fluorescence:FRET/FRAP etc
8 / Mar 3 / Membrane Enzymes/Lipid Assymmetry
Assays/chemical modification
11 / Mar 24 / Antibiotic peptides/cell penetrating peptides
Isothermal titration calorimetry
12 / Mar 31 / Membrane proteins- channels/pores
Structure-reconstitution
13 / Apr 7 / Membrane proteins receptors/signal transduction
14 / Apr 14 / Membrane fusion/membrane curvature
EPR/fluorescence
15 / Apr 21 / Lipid phases for crystallization/ x-ray
Please sign up for 2 slots (so far 10 people registered). The topics can be varied but must first be cleared by me.