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,
