Chemistry of Gene Expression

Catalog description

rinciples behind the structure and function of nucleic acids.Main topics of lectures and class discussion will include the chemical and biochemical syntheses, properties and analyses of natural and modified nucleic acids to investigate cellular processes such as transcription, RNA splicing, other RNA regulation and translation; an introduction to the enzymatic strategies that accelerate these chemical reactions and a comparison of protein enzymes, ribozymes and other nucleic acid based enzymes in contemporary chemistry and biology. Students will learn to critically evaluate current scientific efforts that examine various aspects of chemistry and biological chemistry, the relationship between the structure and function of biomolecular systems, propose experiments to examine biological chemistry research problems and communicate these ideas and participate in scientific discussions and debates. 3 hrs. lec.