Course Information

Spectroscopic, Structural and Hydrodynamics Techniques

The course is designed to follow Biochem 440b, but can be taken on its own. Students will be expected to have had a course in introductory physical chemistry. A course in biochemistry is also strongly recommended.

Lectures

11:00 AM – 12:20 PM Tuesdays and Thursdays in Room 161 Noyes Lab

Content

This is the second semester of a survey of problems and techniques in physical biochemistry. The emphasis is on spectroscopic, structural and hydrodynamic techniques used to obtain information about the structure, size, shape and dynamics of biological macromolecules.

Lecture Slides

The lectures will be delivered using PowerPoint slides. These will be available on this website using the Lecture Slides link to the left. When possible, these will be posted prior to the lecture. You should check the morning prior to each lecture and print out the lecture slides to bring to class.

Texts

There are no required texts. There are two recommended texts, which are the same as used in Chem 440b/Fall 2008. The first is available free on the course website. Lectures will not be taken directly from the book by Engel et al, and it should not be necessary to purchase it. It could be useful as background and some of the topics are the same as those discussed in class.

  1. MCB 446 Notes by Robert Gennis. Printed Notes will be available in the bookstore and they will also be available online at this website in HTML or PDF format by following the appropriate link to the left. About half of the course material is covered in these Notes.

  2. Physical Chemistry for the Life Sciences by Engel, Drobny and Reid. Pearson/Prentice-Hall publishers.

Grading Policy

3 exams worth 25% each = 75%

The remaining 25% will come from homework. There will be about 10 problem sets assigned during the semester. Attendance will be taken periodically throughout the semester, either by collecting the homework in class or taking attendance in class. Attendance will be used as one measure of "effort" and will be taken into account at the end of the semester using a normalization procedure in deciding the final grade, especially for those close to a grade cut-off.

Grading will use separate curves for graduate and undergraduates, if this is practical based on the numbers in each group. The final grades will include "+ and -" grades. The grades will be distributed approximately 1/3 each for A, B and C, where "A" includes A+, A and A-, etc.

Note: All grades will be posted using the University of Illinois Compass and will be available on the web. You should use this to be sure your grades for each problem set and examination are properly recorded.

The examinations are tentatively scheduled as follows:

  1. Thursday, March 5, First Exam
  2. Thursday, April 9, Second Exam

Problem Sets

Problem sets will be assigned and grades will be recorded. The problem sets are meant to assist you to learn the material and give you an idea of what the examination questions will be like. The Problem Set Grade will be worth 25% of the final grade in the course. Grading will take into account both effort and the correct answers.

Attendance

At random times, attendance will be recorded, and will be taken into consideration in assigning the final grade in the course.