Biochemistry 252 - Syllabus/Schedule of Events, Spring 2010

Last Modified 24 January 2010

Instructor: David Bickar


Reading: The text is Biochemistry (6th Edition), by J.M. Berg, J.L. Tymoczko, and L. Stryer, W.H.
Freeman and Co., New York, 2007.  Readings should be completed by the dates shown below. Additional readings from the current literature will also be required.

Lecture: T, R 10:30 - 11:50 AM in McConnell 404

Grading: Your final grade will be the sum of the following compoments;

Attendance: I expect you to attend every class meeting. Class will begin promptly at 10:30 AM, so out of courtesy to your classmates, please be sure to arrive on time. For many class meetings, you will have a class preparation assignment to complete. These assignments will be posted on Moodle, and you will receive an email announcement when each new assignment is posted. Be sure you check the email address listed for you in Moodle! We will frequently use these assignments as a starting point for our class discussion or as a way to review material covered in class. If you miss class, you will not get credit for that day’s assignment.

 

Late Work Policy: If a particular due date conflicts with other obligations, or for other reasons you cannot turn in work by or before its due date, talk to me (before the date the work is due), and  we can try to make other arrangements.  Late work (without a previous arrangement with me) will be penalized by (2n)% of its total value, where "n" is the number of days late (including weekends and vacations).  The objective of this complicated late policy is to minimize the penalty for work that is only slightly late, but to increase the penalty as the work becomes more overdue and less relevant to what we are studying at the time.  An unanticipated but interesting aspect of this scheme is that after a week work has negative value; turning it in will lower your grade!
 
 

Tentative Schedule for BCH 252

  Week    Lectures (T & Th 10:00 - 11:50 am)   Readings 
 (Berg)
Q
 A   D
PS
 A   D
P
  A   D
1. 1/26  General Overview: Water, the Stuff of Life (1.3 - 1.4)             
  1/28  Amino Acids - Structure and Functional Groups  2 .0 - 2.2      *   *  
2. 2/2  Peptides -  Primary Structure  2.2            
  2/4  Secondary Structure - Helicies, Sheets and Bends  2.3        *    
3. 2/9 Tertiary Structure, Conformation & Seeing Structures  2.4            
  2/11    6
*
 *
 
      
4. 2/16  Biochemical Databases 2.6
 
 
        
   2/18 Predicting Structure    
 
*
 
    
5. 2/23 Amino Acids & Proteins - Purification & Analysis  3
 
          
  2/25 Binding Proteins and Enzymes 7, 8.0 - 8.3
 
 
 
*
    
6. 3/2 Kinetics  8.4 - 8.5            
  3/4  Enzymes and Binding Proteins 10      
 
   
7. 3/9  Metabolism - Energy Flow 15 *          
  3/11 Metabolism - Energy Flow      *        
8. 3/16  Spring Break              
  3/18  Spring Break      
 
      
9. 3/23 Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids   4         * *
  3/25  Secondary Structure - Helicies and Other   28.0 - 28.2    
*
   
10. 3/30  Secondary Structure - and Other   28.0 - 28.2            
  4/1  Information Storage -  Are we 5 Gigabytes?   28.3 28.6      
*
    
11. 4/6  Protein-Polynucleic Acid Interactions & Epigenetics   31
*
          
  4/8  Histones and Tertiary Structure  
 *        
12. 4/13  Information Flow- DNA and RNA   29            
  4/15 Information Flow- DNA and RNA      
*
      
13. 4/20 Protein Synthesis   30            
  4/22 Protein Synthesis        
*
   *
14. 4/27  Prions, Proteoids and Viroids  
*
          
  4/29  Closing Remarks  
 *        


Honor Code: As with any Smith College course, the honor code applies to Biochemistry 252. Hence the work you submit must be your own, or the actual source specifically cited. Exams must be completed on your own, and until everyone has taken the exam, it should not be discussed with anyone but me. Textbooks, notes, computers, programmable calculators or other electronic devices may be used in some instances, but only if expressly allowed. You are encouraged to work together on homework assignments, but please remember that it is important that you understand how to do the problems. It is unfair to your classmates and to yourself to copy another's work or to allow your work to be copied.

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