Fundamentals of Biophysical Chemistry 1200-1CHBFIW6

Biomolecules: Water and its physical peculiarities in the context of stability and dynamics of biological structures. Conformations of proteins and nucleic acids. Hydrogen bonding in proteins and DNA; ionic pairs; "hydrophobic interactions". Biopuzzles: Hierarchies of biostructures. The chirality of life. Methods of structure-determination: diffraction, NMR, circular dichroism, FT-IR. Dynamics of protein conformations: folding, unfolding (denaturation), and aggregation. Conformational transitions in DNA (B-Z). The role of solvent entropy in folding (the hydrophobic core model). The cooperativity of folding: molecular evolution. Molten globule states, chaperones, protein nanopipes, amyloid and prions. Pathways of conformational transitions and folding funnels. Intervention of molecular evolution in polymer science. Conformational disorders: Alzheimer disease and Parkinson diseases. Extremophiles: the spectacular achievements of molecular evolution of proteins. Interactions of proteins and nuclei acids. Viruses as large self-assembling biopuzzles. Biodevices: Movement and its organization in the nano-scale. Fluorescence and Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET). Elastic complexes of proteins: chaperones, allosteric enzymes, biomotors, myosin-actin, and the molecular basis of muscle contraction. Transmission Electron Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy. Molecular Force Microscopy, and Optical Tweezers - or how to stretch a single biomolecule (and what for?). Bio-inspired modern nanomaterials.