BIOPHYSICS A.A. 2017-2018
(6 ECTS)
[given in the 2nd semester]
Time schedule: mon. 9-11 room 2 (Fermi); wed. 9-11 room 2 (Fermi)
Instructor: Andrea Giansanti, room 211 (2nd floor, Marconi Building) tel. 0649914367 Andrea.Giansanti@roma1.infn.it
BASIC PHYSICAL LAWS AND LIVING CELLS: CONCEPTS AND EXPERIMENTS.
Description/Objectives. This course used to follow a course of Introductory Biophysics, given as an optional third year course in the BA program. Unfortunately, the BA course was abolished, and we had to compress or skip much of the advanced topics. Nevertheless this course is conceived as a compact introduction to the methods (techniques), arguments (principles) and perspectives (ideas) of contemporary biophysics. The style of the course will be mainly by illustration not by exhaustive demonstration. Lectures based on detailed chalk demonstration (in the math style) will be limited in number. On the contrary, extensive reference to the literature and to many specialized texts will be offered as threads for personal study. The objective of the course is, in a nutshell, to narrow the gap between the institutional level of training and that of research.
Requirements. Enrolled students should have taken the basic courses of the BA program. In particular, basic competence in mechanics, thermodynamics, chemical equilibrium and quantum mechanics is required.
Evaluation: based on written essays, written tests and homeworks: 40%. Oral exam: 60%.
Topics. The themes of the course will be partitioned into three tracks: T1, FACTS; T2, ARGUMENTS AND MODELS; T3, TECHNIQUES.
Recommended texts.
[DB] K.A.Dll & S. Bromberg, Molecular Driving Forces, Garland Science ,(2nd edition) 2011.
[PBC] R. Phillips, J. Kondev, J. Theriot, Physical Biology of the Cell, 2nd ed. Taylor and Francis, 2008.
[B] W. Bialek, Biophysics,
[BBN] R. Phillips & R. Milo, Cell Biology by the numbers,
- Teacher: Andrea Giansanti