Overview

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Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes that keep cells and organisms running, and this course builds the foundation for everything else in the program. You'll start with amino acids and work up through the four levels of protein structure – primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary – including how peptide bonds form and how proteins fold, move, signal, and perform their many roles in the body. From there, you'll examine biological membranes: their structure, the lipid bilayer, and the transport proteins and ion channels that control what crosses them. The course then introduces the central dogma of molecular biology – nucleotide structure, DNA replication, transcription, mRNA processing, tRNA charging, and translation – before closing with the core principles of metabolism, including catabolism versus anabolism, metabolic pathways, Gibbs free energy, oxidation-reduction reactions, and how cells regulate enzymatic activity through allosterism and covalent modification.

Syllabus

Proteins
- This module introduces the chemical building blocks of biochemistry, tracing how amino acids assemble into peptides and fold into the hierarchical structures that give proteins their shape, and surveying the range of functions proteins perform in the body.
Carbohydrates
- This module covers the chemistry of carbohydrates, from the structure and nomenclature of simple sugars to the glycosidic bonds that build disaccharides and polysaccharides, and the conjugated forms carbohydrates take when linked to lipids and proteins.
Lipids
- This module surveys lipid biochemistry, from the structure of fatty acids and their assembly into glycerolipids and sphingolipids to the steroid and isoprenoid family, and the physiological roles played by other lipid derivatives and fat-soluble vitamins.
Biological Membranes
- This module examines the structure of biological membranes and the mechanisms cells use to move molecules across them, from passive diffusion through channels and transporters to the active, ATP-driven pumps that maintain ion gradients.
DNA, RNA and the Genetic Code
- This module traces the flow of genetic information from the structure of DNA through replication, transcription, and translation, covering the roles of messenger, transfer, and ribosomal RNA and the rules of the genetic code that link nucleotide sequence to protein synthesis.
Metabolism
- This module introduces the thermodynamic principles that drive biochemical reactions and the organization of metabolism into interconnected anabolic and catabolic pathways, along with the allosteric, covalent, and feedback mechanisms cells use to regulate enzyme activity.