Lecture Materials
Unit I: Introduction
Lecture 1 - Key Concepts in Biochemistry with a Focus on Nucleic Acids
In this overview of biochemistry you will be introduced to some of the important molecular players in living systems, including a the major types of biological polymers, the energy transformations required to create and sustain a living system, and the cell, which is the basic unit of a living systems.
- Lecture 1 Overheads (Incompatible with Internet Explorer, use Safari, Firefox or Chrome)
- Reading: Berg et al., Chapter 1: Biochemistry: An Evolving Science
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Additional Reading
- Recent Science article on peptide synthesis by ribosomes:
- Gregor Blaha, Robin E. Stanley and Thomas A. Steitz, "Formation of the First Peptide Bond: The Structure of EF-P Bound to the 70S Ribosome", Science 2009, 325, 966-970.
- On 7. October, 2009, the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to determining the 3-dimensional structure of ribosomes
- Determining the structure of DNA:
- Pauling, Linus and Corey, Robert, "A Proposed Structure for the Nucleic Acids", Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 1953, 39, 84-97.
- Wilkins, M.H.F., Stokes, A.R. and Wilson, H.R., "Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids", Nature 1953, 171, 738-740.
- Watson, J.D. and Crick, F.H.C., "A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acids", Nature 1953, 171, 737-738.
- Clarifying the "Central Dogma"
- Crick, F., "Central Dogma of Molecular Biology", Nature 1970, 227, 561-563.
- The ENCODE Project
- Maher, B., "ENCODE: The human encyclopaedia," Nature 2012 489, 46–48.
- Birney, E., "The making of ENCODE: Lessons for big-data projects," Nature 2012 489, 49–51.
- Simulations
- Recent Science article on peptide synthesis by ribosomes:
- Molecular Models
- Acid/Base Elaborations
- Resources
- Macromolecules A chart displaying examples of biological machinery
- Metabolytes Metabolic Pathways chart
- Genomics A timeline
- Genomics Human Genome Map
- Problem Assignments
- Chapter 1, Berg, Tymoczko & Stryer
- Hand-in assignment 1 [pdf] [doc]
