Details of CH4215 (Spring 2025)
| Level: 4 | Type: Theory | Credits: 4.0 |
| Course Code | Course Name | Instructor(s) |
|---|---|---|
| CH4215 | Frontiers at the Chemistry-Biology Interface | Arabinda Chaudhuri, Pradip Kumar Tarafdar |
| Preamble |
|---|
| To enhance knowledge breadth of doctoral and senior BS-MS students in the area ofemerging
interdisciplinary sciences at the interface of chemistry and biology; and To hone critical thinking abilities of the students through discussion of recentmilestone work at chemistry-biology interface. |
| Syllabus |
|---|
| Basic concepts in chemical biology
Recap of the cellular structure, molecular architectures of biological macromolecules and lipidsand the roles they play in cells; Cellular uptake mechanisms via endocytosis and other routes;Concept of Phage display library and its use by chemists; Chemists contributions in imaging of cells(both in vitro and in vivo); Understanding the chemistry behind important biological assays includingcell viability assay, various assays for measuring apoptosis of cells, various gel electrophoresis basedassays, etc.; chemical basis of various protein purification techniques, etc. (10 lectures). RNA interference Recap of nucleic acid chemistry; discovery of RNA interference and its medical applications, hownucleic acid chemists came at rescue; delivery issues; set-backs& future prospects. (5 lectures). Targeted Cancer Therapy What is cancer? Mechanisms of cancer cell proliferations; rational design of small molecule anticancercompounds; concepts of targeted cancer therapy; chemical approaches fortargeting potent cytotoxic drugs selectively to cancer cells/tissues; major accomplishments in thefield; unmet challenges and future prospects. (5 lectures). Cancer immunotherapy (SyntheticImmunology) Basic concepts of immunology and understanding our immune systems; roles of antigen presentingcells in our immune systems; the basic mechanisms of how cancers evade our immune system;check point inhibitors; contribution of chemists in the fastest growing field of cancerimmunotherapy; the emerging field of synthetic immunology; designing small molecule immunemodulators for use in cancer immunotherapy; success and set-backs, future prospects. (5 lectures). Contributions of chemists in the emerging field of Gene Therapy Recent developments in Gene Therapy and Genome editing (CRISPR-Cas9); major set-backs including cellular & systemic hurdles in the field; futureprospects, discussion of few recently reported major contributions (6 lectures). Pharmacology for Chemists Chemical and biological bases of pharmacology, some important concepts in pharmacology including pharmacokinetics & pharmacodynamics; Drug discovery and antibiotics developments;(5 lectures). |
| References |
|---|
| Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, Sixth Edition 2013 (By Nelson and Cox,);Molecular Cell
Biology, Sixth Edition 2008 (By Lodish, Berk, Kaiser, Krieger, Scott, Bretscher, Ploeghand Matsudaira) The biology of CANCER 2014 (By Robert A. Weinberg) Pharmacology for Chemists Second Edition, 2007 (By Joseph G. Cannon). |
Course Credit Options
| Sl. No. | Programme | Semester No | Course Choice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IP | 2 | Elective |
| 2 | IP | 4 | Elective |
| 3 | IP | 6 | Not Allowed |
| 4 | MP | 2 | Not Allowed |
| 5 | MP | 4 | Elective |
| 6 | MR | 2 | Not Allowed |
| 7 | MR | 4 | Not Allowed |
| 8 | MS | 10 | Not Allowed |
| 9 | MS | 4 | Not Allowed |
| 10 | MS | 6 | Not Allowed |
| 11 | MS | 8 | Elective |
| 12 | RS | 1 | Elective |
| 13 | RS | 2 | Elective |