Syllabus [PDF]

The course is being developed for teaching in the next semester (Jan-May 2021). This is also my experiment with the goal of to create a new graduate-level course "Bioanalytical Chemistry" in 2022.

Course overview

Bioanalytical chemistry deals with the detection and quantification of biomolecules and chemical species in biological samples. In this course, we will explore how can we improve and design a method for bioanalytical chemistry. First, we will survey the requirements and challenges for bioanalytical chemistry. Then, we will examine biomolecular analysis for DNA, RNA, proteins, and immunoassays. Because these techniques are sometimes not practical, we will discuss how can we improve the analysis of biomarkers by developing chemical sensors and biosensors based on the techniques that we are familiar such as electrochemistry and colorimetry. A portion of the course will be devoted to discuss COVID-19 testing on the gold standard techniques for diagnosis and simpler methods for rapid screening. If time permitted, we will finally discuss the adaptation of analytical techniques to perform chemical imaging of biological samples for research and diagnostic purposes. We will discuss and evaluate many primary literatures, and we will develop an original research proposal to demonstrate your mastery in bioanalytical chemistry.

Objectives:

1. Outline the motivation, explain the principles, and interpret data from bioanalytical techniques.

2. Compare and choose a technique, instrumentation, and method for bioanalytical experiments.

3. Examine the limitations and challenges in developing new bioanalytical techniques and methods.

4. Discuss and evaluate new research in bioanalytical chemistry.

5. Propose new experiment or research that utilizes bioanalytical techniques, instrumentation, and methods.

Grading:

• Problem Sets (30%)

• Class Participation (20%)

• Paper Critique and Presentation (20%)

• Final Paper and Presentation (30%)

Course Note (Summary) [PDF]