Physical Biochemistry

Code: QUI12394L

6 ECTS

Duration: 15 weeks/156 hours

Scientific Area: Biochemistry

Teaching languages: Portuguese

Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese

Presentation

Physical and chemical notions which determine and explain the structure of biomacromolecules, their properties and behavior in biological systems.

Sustainable Development Goals

Educação de qualidade - Assegurar a educação inclusiva, e equitativa e de qualidade, e promover oportunidades de aprendizagem ao longo da vida para todos.

Trabalho decente e crescimento económico - Promover o crescimento económico sustentado, inclusivo e sustentável, emprego pleno e produtivo, e trabalho decente para todos.

Inovação infraestrutura - Construir infraestrutura resiliente, promover a industrialização inclusiva e sustentável, e fomentar a inovação.

Learning Goals

This unit aims to provide basic notions on biomolecules structure and explain the reasons at molecular level for their behavior. It also provides the fundamentals underlying some of the techniques used to study properties of biomacromolecules.
This unit also aims to develop the competences of analyzing the physical reasons underlying the behavior of biochemical systems. The student should be capable of integrating the most fundamental aspects of physics and chemistry with the more complex aspects of molecular level behavior of biological systems. In this unit, the competence of applying theoretical principles to the understanding and solution of practical problems should also be developed by the student. Finally, competences should be obtained for collecting, selecting and interpreting scientific data, discussing its implications and communicating ideas and scientific knowledge, either orally or in writing, organized in a logic and coherent form about subjects taught in the unit.

1. Structure of biomacromolecules.
2. Interactions in aqueous medium and in hydrophobic medium.
3. Notions of symmetry.
4. Fundamentals of Statistical Mechanics and Molecular Thermodynamics.
5. Introduction to Molecular Modeling tools.
6. Thermodynamic aspects of solutions of macromolecules.
7. Fundamentals of non-equilibrium thermodynamics.
8. Characterization of sedimentation phenomena, electrophoresis and transport through membranes.

Teaching Methods

The teaching / learning is based in the individual work of students, supported by recommended bibliography and notes taken by the students either during classes or through individual research. In the lectures the theory will be exposed, commented and discussed with the students. In practical classes, the subjects developed in the lectures are illustrated with both lab experiments and the resolution of problems of practical examples.
The evaluation is composed by a theoretical and a practical components, corresponding respectively to 70% and 30% of the final classification. The theoretical component is evaluated by the realization of 2 tests (one for the first half of the semester and the other for the second half) and/or one final exam. The practical component is evaluated based on the performance of the student during the lab classes and the classifications of the lab reports corresponding to those classes.