Chemistry for Biologists (1 credit, mandatory)

(Dr Niyati Jain, Dr Mary Ekka)

Atoms to building blocks of Biology (atoms, molecules, chemical bonds)

Forces in Biology (different types of interactions, such as hydrophobic, Van der Waals )

Energetics of Biology (thermodynamics)

Key concepts for enzymology: Nucleophiles, Water

Asymmetry and chirality in biomolecules

Chemical tools in Biology (Spectroscopy)

Option 1: Protein structure and function (1 credit)

(Dr Lipi Thukral, Dr Bhupesh Taneja)

Amino acid to proteins, sequence-folding relationship (ramachandran plot, basics of secondary structure), structure and conformation, Dynamic regulation of protein function, techniques and challenges.

Option 2: Proteomics and Metabolomics (1 credit)

(Dr Swarnendu Bag and Dr Sagarika Biswas)

The course will focus on mass spectrometry based investigations of proteomes and metabolomes. It will cover basic principles of identification, quantitative label free and label based methods, multiple reaction monitoring.

Option 3: Disease Mechanisms: Integration of Metabolic and Cellular Signaling (1 credit)

(Dr Sheetal Gandotra and Dr Soumya Sinha Roy)

Focus of the course: How physiological changes are routed through

metabolic and cellular pathways and how purturbations can lead to diseased states

Topics:

(i) Compartmentalization principles in the cell

(ii) Design principles of electron transport in conjunction with metabolism

(iii) Mitochondrial dynamics

(iv) Calcium dynamics and cross-talk

(v) ER quality control

(vi) Lipid storage and degradation

(vii) Transcriptional control of metabolism

(viii) Metabolic cross-talk during infection

(ix) Inflammation and Metabolism