03-871: Structural Biophysics

The physical properties of biological macromolecules and the methods used to analyze their structure and function are discussed. Topics covered include: protein architecture and folding; nucleic acid structures and energetics; structure determination by X-ray crystallography and NMR; biological spectroscopy with emphasis on absorption, fluorescence, and NMR spectroscopies; other methods to characterize proteins and protein-ligand interactions, such as mass spectrometry, calorimetry, and surface plasmon resonance. Sufficient detail is given to allow the student to critically evaluate the current literature.  

Fall: 12 units
Prerequisites: (03-231 or 03-232) and (09-214 or 09-345) and (21-120 or 21-122)