Courses Catalogue

Syllabus of the course: Molecular Biophysics


In this web page we provide the syllabus of the course Molecular Biophysics, offered by the Department of Physics.
The list of the courses offered during the current accademic year is available here.
The list of all courses offered by the Department of Physics is available here.

CodeΦ-341
TypeC
ECTS6
Hours4
SemesterWinter
InstructorI. Kominis
ProgramMonday 11:00-13:00 Amphitheater B
Thursday 13:00-15:00 Amphitheater B
Web pagehttps://eclass.physics.uoc.gr/courses/PH341/
Goal of the courseThe goal of this course is to introduce students to the modern and interdisciplinary field of biophysics. Students will learn how basic physics concepts they learn in other physics courses, like thermodynamics/ statistical physics, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics, merge into the explanation of complex biological systems.
Syllabus1) Biomolecules (3 classes)
Nucleic acids and DNA structure, hydrocarbons, lipids, amino acids and protein structure
2) Molecular bonding and interactions (5 classes)
Ionic bond, covalent bond, hydrogen bond, dispersion forces and van der Waals interactions
3) Biological thermodynamics (4 classes)
Free energy, entropy, chemical potential, chemical reaction rates, diffusion and transport
4) Experimental methods (6 classes)
Electroporation, electrophysiology, X-ray diffraction, nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared spectroscopy, fluorescence microscopy and spectroscopy
5) Modern topics I (4 classes)
Physical processes in the physiology of vision, action potential propagation in neurons
6) Modern topics II (4 classes)
Protein folding, molecular recognition, enzyme catalysis, molecular nanomachines
Bibliography1) Χαμόδρακας, Θέματα Μοριακής Βιοφυσικής, Συμμετρία
2) Παπαδόπουλος, Βιοφυσική-Αρχές Φυσικής Βιοχημείας, EMBRYO Publications
3) Kuriyan, Konforti & Wemmer, The Molecules of Life, Garland Science
4) Phillips, Kondev, Theriot, Garcia & Orme, Physical Biology of the Cell, Garland Science
5) Dill &Bromberg, Molecular Driving Forces, Garland Science
6) Scott, Neuroscience, a Mathematical Primer, Springer
7) Campbell, Biophysical Techniques, Oxford University Press

University of Crete - Department of Physics  - Voutes University Campus - GR-70013 Heraklion, Greece
phone: +30 2810 394300 - email: chair@physics.uoc.gr