Key Information
About the content
Do you want to prepare for medical school, study a STEM field, become a research scientist, or transition to a career in the booming biotechnology industry? Or maybe you just want to understand the chemical reactions that govern life itself. Join Professor Yaffe, an MIT professor and practicing surgeon, as he guides you through the science that inspires countless doctors, researchers, and students alike.
We developed 7.05x Biochemistry with an emphasis on:
- Developing your scientific thinking skills including articulating hypotheses, performing thought experiments, interpreting data, and designing experiments.
- Using data based on real scientific experiments and highlighting the scientific process.
- Asserting that biology is an active field that changes daily through examples of MIT (and other current) research, not static information in a textbook.
- Visualizing real molecular structures with PyMOL to better understand function and mechanism.
- Appreciating the quantitative aspects of biochemistry and practicing this quantitation with MATLAB.
- Translating topics in biochemistry to diseases and medicine.
- Conveying the authentic MIT firehose experience.
- Implementing the science of learning in the course design.
We offer a thorough and robust means of certifying edX learners in their mastery of the MITx biochemistry content, through the MITx 7.05x Biochemistry Competency Exam. This challenging option is available only to those who register for the verified-certificate track, and successful completion of this exam is the majority of the assessment grade that counts toward a certificate. The Competency Exam will be open during the final week of the course.
- How to apply the scientific method to pursue research questions.
- How to analyze protein purification schemes.
- How scientists determine the structure of a protein.
- How structure, allostery, and the Bohr effect influence hemoglobin function.
- How to interpret graphs, plot behaviors, and calculate constants related to enzyme function.
- How pumps, transporters, and channels differ to regulate molecule transfer across membranes.
- How G proteins play a key role in signaling.
Prerequisite
Undergraduate introductory biology (biochemistry and molecular biology);
Undergraduate introductory chemistry;
Undergraduate organic chemistry I (chemical structures and biological mechanisms)
Syllabus
The course includes the following learning sequences:
- Introduction to Biochemistry; pH and Buffers
- Amino Acids and Proteins
- Protein Purification
- Protein Structure
- Protein Folding
- Hemoglobin and Allostery
- Hemoglobin and the Bohr Effect
- Enzyme Chemistry
- Enzyme as Catalysts
- Enzyme Kinetics
- Membranes, Channels, Transporters, and Pumps
- Blood Clotting
- Signal Transduction
Instructors
Michael Yaffe
David H. Koch Professor of Science; Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering; Director, MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine; Director, KI Clinical Investigator Program
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mary Ellen Wiltrout
Director of Blended and Online Initiatives, Lecturer, Department of Biology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Darcy Gordon
Instructor of Blended and Online Initiatives, Department of Biology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Monika Avello
Instructor, Department of Biology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Content Designer
MIT is a world-class educational institution where teaching and research — with relevance to the practical world as a guiding principle — continue to be its primary purpose.
MIT is independent, coeducational, and privately endowed. Its five schools and one college encompass numerous academic departments, divisions and degree-granting programs, as well as interdisciplinary centers, laboratories and programs whose work cuts across traditional departmental boundaries.
Platform
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