Biochemistry 463, Spring 2003

Assoc. Prof. Jason D. Kahn

Course meets in Chemistry 1402, MWF 11 a.m.-12 noon.

Office Hours: Kahn -- Weds. 2-3 p.m., Thursday 1-2 p.m. Chemistry 2505

Office Hours: McPhee -- Mon.. 1-2 p.m., Tuesday 1-2 p.m., Chemistry 2507, 2500, or 2510

Revised Syllabus (PDF), including general course information and lecture schedule.

Here is the Code of Academic Integrity: http://www.inform.umd.edu/CampusInfo/Departments/JPO/code_acinteg2a.html.

Please read this statement on plagiarism. Its intent is to forestall any problems, not to upset anyone.

5/23/03: Final grades have been submitted. The curves for the final and the course grade distributions are here.

5/16/03; The makeup exam (questions only) has been posted here. No answers will be provided. Some of the questions resemble those on the final, some don't. See you at 8 a.m. Monday morning!

5/5/03: Click for GIF image summarizing hormonal control of glucose metabolism. Summary of recent assignments:

Reading: Ch 14: 4; Ch 15: 1-4 Ch. 21: 1
Problems: Ch 15: 5,6,7,9,10

5/4/03: Exam 3 results are available. I include some discussion of why it didn't go well for many of you, and some strategies for the future.

4/18/03: My office hour on Wednesday the 23rd will be at 1-2 p.m. instead of 2-3 p.m. The review session for exam III will be 4/28/03, at 6 p.m., place TBA. A spreadsheet illustrating the advantages of controlling flux at irreversible steps is available through the teaching resources page.

Here's the list of questions on old exams pertinent to our upcoming Exam III. The questions on enzyme kinetics on the exams are significantly harder than you will be expected to answer this semester:

Summary of recent assignments:

Reading: Ch 8: 1,2ABC; Ch 13: 1-4 Ch. 14:1,2,3
Problems: Ch 13: 1,4,5,8,9 Ch. 14:1,2,4,5,6

4/2/03: Exam II results are available.

Assignment:

Reading: Ch. 11:1,2,3E Ch. 12: 1ABC, 2A, 3(optional) Ch. 13:1-4
Problems: Ch. 11:2,4 Ch. 12: 3,4,5,6,9

3/12/03: Spreadsheet illustrating hemoglobin allostery is available through teaching resources page. The exam on 3/19 covers through and including hemoglobin allostery and oxygen transport, but exploring the spreadsheet is recommended, not required.

List of questions on old exams pertinent to our upcoming Exam II:

3/10/03; Results from Exam I are available. The review session for the second exam will be in Chemistry 1407, 6-8 p.m., 3/17/03.

2/21/03: The date for the for the first exam has been changed to February 28, one week from today. It was previously scheduled for Wednesday, the 26th. There will be a review session from 6-8 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24th, in Chemistry 1407 (the lecture hall next to ours). Please come early, so that I don't have to repeat too many answers. I will leave when questions dry up; in the past this has happened after about 1.5 hours. I will hold my regular office hours next week. The exam covers through and including the material covered today on the Ramachandran plot, but not the alpha helix. In lecture today, I made an error in writing the atoms that define the phi torsion angle. The four atoms that define the phi angle for residue i are the carbonyl carbon of residue i-1, the nitrogen of residue i, the alpha carbon of residue i, and the carbonyl carbon of residue i. The diagram I drew was correct, but I listed the angle as "Calpha-phi-Calpha" whereas I meant to write C=O-phi-C=O. The Psi angle belonging to residue alpha is defined by the nitrogen, the Calpha, and the carbonyl carbon of residue i and the nitrogen of i+1. It was correctly defined in class.

List of questions pertinent to our upcoming Exam I:

2/14/03: Reading and Problem set assignments

Reading: Ch. 5:1,4; Ch. 6: 1A,B,D
Problems: Ch. 5: 2. Ch. 6: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and Ch. 6 Study Questions (SQ) 1,3,4,7,8,10

2/5/03: The date for the third exam has been changed to April 30 (from April 23). The second exam will be administered at 10 a.m. as well as at 11 a.m. The downloadable syllabus has been revised to reflect the changes.

1/29/03: An amino acid table is available. Lots of old exams are available.

1/29/03: Reading and Problem set assignments (not yet given in class):

Reading: Chapter 1:1,2,3,skim4. Chapter 2: 1,2. Chapter 4: 1,2. Looking ahead: Ch. 5:1,4; Ch. 6 1A,B,D.
Problems: Ch 1: 2,3,4. Ch 2: 1,2,3,5. Ch. 4: 2,5.

Here is a sketch of peptide hydrolysis at low pH.

Sketch of peptides comparing Psi = -90 and Psi = +90, with linked PDB files.

1/29/03: Please compare your copy of VVP with the errata sheet for Table 4.1 (PDF format). Older printings have errors for Q, Y, and C. Newer printings of the text are correct.

Other useful links:
My various teaching resources on biomolecular visualization.

Biochemistry seminars.

External Resources

Up to J. Kahn's home page.

Send me e-mail.

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Last updated 1/27/03 Jason D. Kahn