Purpose

This course is an in depth look at the biology and physics of the biomembrane. A large number of important biological processes occur within the biomembrane. These include the primary production of ATP, our sensory understanding of the outside world via the detection and interpretation of light, sound, heat, pressure and chemicals and the communication between cells such as neurons.  This course will investigate the biology and biophysics of the molecules involved in these processes and provide students with knowledge about these important processes and the methods utilized to study them in detail. Students will have weekly reading assignments from the primary literature, they will submit short critical writings on the reading material and will critique and discuss the papers in class. In addition each student will give an oral presentation on several journal articles and an in depth written critique. A final written paper will be required that addresses a critical question in membrane biology and outlines a proposed experimental approach to answer the question.

Syllabus

Week 1            Introduction to the membrane and the processes contained within it..

                        Reading: Guiness, Biomembrane Chapt 1(reserve and copies)

Week 2            Lipids and lipid properties, properties of the membrane, membrane protein structure and stability.

                        Reading: Guines, Biomembrane Chapt 2 (reserve and copies), Review Stowell and Rees (handed out in class)

Week 3            Bacteriorhodopsin, halorhodopsin, photosynthetic reaction center.

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 4            Photosystem I and II, Light harvesting complexes

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 5            Cytochrome oxidase Ubiquinol cytochrome-c oxidoreductase

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 6            Complex II and Formate dehydrogenase

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 7            Bo3 oxidase

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 8            ATP-synthase, Ca ATPase

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 9            FuA transport, TOLC complex

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 10          GPCR’s.G-proteins, porins

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 11          ABC-cassette transporters, Calcium ATPase transporter

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 12          Anion specific channels, chloride channel, aquaporin, GlpF

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 13          Potassium channels, cation specific

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 14          Ligand gated ion channels, AChR, ACH-BP,

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 15          Gap junctions Mechanosensitive channels

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Week 16          Toxin channels, hemolysin, colicin

                        Reading: Papers from the literature available on course web site as PDF.

Critical writings

There will be weekly short critical writings on the reading material. Each student will write a 1 page critique on the papers that they present orally to the class. Students will prepare a final written paper that addresses a critical question in membrane biology and outlines a proposed experimental approach to answer the question.

Discussions

Each student will give two oral presentations on the reading assignments. These presentations will be followed by a discussions lead by the student to critically analyze the reading material and to review what students have learned from the presentation and the reading material.

Grade determination

20%     Weekly critical writings

20%     Participation in class discussion

20%     Oral presentation and in depth written critique

40 %    Final written proposal

Extra Reading Material

http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/ (the protein data bank)

http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/ (a molecular modeling and display program)

http://www-structure.llnl.gov/Xray/101index.html     (X-ray crystallography basics)

http://www-structmed.cimr.cam.ac.uk/course.html   (More in-depth x-ray crystallography)

http://www.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/PPS2/top.html  (Principles of protein structure web course)

Crystallography without tears