BSE221A - BIOCHEMISTRY

Enzymes: Concepts, kinetics, catalytic strategies and regulation: Free energy as a thermodynamic function, formation of transition states, The Michael is Menten model, enzyme inhibitors, coenzymes, proteases, oxygen transport, hemoglobin, allostery, isozymes Metabolism basic concepts and design: Introduction, coupled reactions and inter connectivities. Glycolysis and Gluconeogenesis: Energy conversion pathways in organisms, control of glycolytic pathway, synthesis of glucose from non-carbohydrate precursors, reciprocal regulation of gluconeogenesis and glycolysis. The citric acid Cycle: Pathway, control, source of biosynthetic precursors, glyoxylate cycle. Oxidative phosphorylation and electron transport chain: Mitochondrial membrane, electron transfer, proton pumps and physical link to citric acid cycle, regulation of cellular machinery Glycogen metabolism: Interplay of enzymes, epinephrine and glucagon signaling, reciprocal regulation of glycogen breakdown and synthesis. Fatty acid Metabolism: Triacyl glycerols as energy stores, stages of processing, pathways of synthesis and degradation, acetyl Coenzyme. A Synthesis of the molecules of life : Nitrogen fixation, amino acid synthesis, feedback inhibition, pyrimidine and purine synthesis, salvage pathway, synthesis of lipids and steroids, regulation of cholesterol biosynthesis Protein Folding and turnover: Stability, pathways of folding, chaperones, pro-teasomes, amino acid degradation, urea formation.