Instructor

            Professor L. J. Kaplan
                        office: 210 Thompson Chemistry Laboratory
                        phone: ext. 3303 or 3308 (research lab)
                        email: lkaplan@williams.edu

Course Description

Biochemistry I, an introduction to the structure and function of biological molecules, is designed to study the molecules and macromolecules in living systems through an application of the principles of organic and physical chemistry as well as molecular biology and genetics. This will include an examination of the structure of these molecules in detail in order to understand how their unique chemical and physical properties contribute to their biological function.

After an introduction to the basic concepts of biochemistry, the structure and function of proteins will be discussed. Special attention will be given to the methods and techniques of biochemistry and their application to proteins and nucleic acids. In order to illustrate these principles, a number of specific proteins will be discussed in detail.

The structures, specificities and mechanisms of action of selected enzymes will illustrate the enormous diversity of this group of catalytic molecules. The mechanism of action of a few enzymes will be studied in detail and general theories for the kinetic analysis of both single substrate and multisubstrate enzymes will be developed.

The structure and function of the nucleic acids will be discussed in some detail and the association of nucleic acids with proteins will introduce these important macromolecular interactions. Higher levels of organization of the genetic material will be introduced and the mechanism of DNA replication, repair, and recombination will be studied. A very brief introduction to transcription and RNA processing, translation and gene regulation will be presented.

Textbook and Laboratory Manual

Nelson, D. L., and Cox, M. M., Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 6th edition, Freeman, New York, 2013.

Kaplan, L. J. A Laboratory Manual for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology - An Investigation of beta-Galactosidase, 2016.

Supplementary Material

Updates for the course and laboratory material, including important dates and deadlines, will be posted on Glow.  The Laboratory Schedule will be available on Glow.  Many web sites are available that provide additional information on various topics in biochemistry.  Reference will be made to these at the appropriate time and they should be consulted to provide an additional dimension to the study of biochemistry.  In order to explore some topics in greater depth, a number of references to the original and review literature will be given in class.  A number of these articles will be put on Glow and should be consulted as the need and interest merit.

Laboratory

The laboratory will involve experiments dealing with the isolation, purification and characterization of the enzyme beta-galactosidase (beta-gal). The experiments have been designed to introduce the basic techniques used with biological macromolecules. Following the isolation of beta-gal and its characterization by SDS gel electrophoresis and a determination of the specific activity of the purified beta-gal, a series of experiments will be conducted to study the nature of beta-gal inhibitors, the pH dependence of beta-gals activity, the stability of beta-gal to temperature and chemical denaturants.

Be sure to read the introductory material in the laboratory manual before the beginning of the laboratory program. Please note the information in the lab manual on the structure and content of the laboratory reports.

The schedule for the lab program is contained in the lab manual and is posted on Glow. The first experiment will be during the week of September 12th.

Evaluation

A mid-term and a final examination as well as two quizzes will be given. In addition, the answers to some of the problem sets will be collected and graded.

Attendance at all laboratory sessions and submission of all laboratory reports is required for completion of the course with a passing grade.

The dates of the exercises and the credit for each exercise are listed in the syllabus distributed in class.

Syllabus

See an abbreviated syllabus. The expanded syllabus with many links to biochemistry/molecular biology sites is posted on Glow.