Office of Academic Affairs
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal

Biological Sciences

BIO 403: Structural Biology (4)

Prerequisites: BIO 302: Biochemistry-II; BIO 303: Biochemistry I

Learning Objectives:

The course presents a theoretical and practical overview of biology, where structure deciphering techniques have revealed models that are key to the dissection of macromolecular “machines” and cellular pathways of versatile interest. Representative molecules will be discussed in terms of how their structure correlates to its function to understand the principles in functional biology.

Course Contents:

Proteins from primary to quaternary structures: Amino acids, primary sequence, peptide bond, dihedral angle, Geometry and chemistry of di-peptide, Ramachandran map, Secondary structural elements and their geometric description. Collagen triple helix, Super secondary structure, Structural domains, Quaternary association of globular proteins; Basics of nucleic acid structure: The building blocks, DNA secondary structure: the Double Helix, Deviation from the ideal geometry, higher-order structure and nucleosomes, tertiary structure of RNA; Protein structure, function and mechanism: Examples of protein three dimensional structures, molecular mechanism of enzymatic function, protein-protein interaction, chaperons, membrane proteins; Virus structure and assembly; Structural biology and evolution; Current topics in structural biology: membrane protein structure, Signal transduction, cell motility, cell-cell interaction, immune system, protein folding and degradation.

Suggested Books:

Previous Back to Course List Next
Office of Academic Affairs