CHEM 527
Introductory Biochemistry

Section 010, Spring 2015
Tuesday and Thursday 9:30-10:45 am
101 Brown Lab

Prof. Brian Bahnson
312A Drake Hall
Phone: 302-831-0786
bahnson@udel.edu
https://sites.udel.edu/chem527
Office hours: Tues/Thurs 11:00-noon,  Wed 10:00-11:30am,
or by appointment

Textbook
Biochemistry, A Short Course, 2^nd edition, by Tymoczko, Berg and Stryer, W.H. Freeman and Co., 2013 [ISBN-10: 1-4292-8360-2]

Textbook Companion Website – (http://bcs.whfreeman.com/tymoczko2e/)

CHEM 527 web page (https://sites.udel.edu/chem527) will have required viewing and reading material.

Assigned Reading
Reading will be assigned in advance of the lectures covering the topic, and a list of chapter sections for each topic appears on the tentative course outline (see below).  Material in the reading that was not explicitly covered in lecture may appear on the exams.

Problem Sets
Problem sets will be assigned Thursdays (excluding exam weeks).  Your answers to those problems will not be collected, but it is strongly advised that you spend some time on them to help your studies.  A significant percent of exams will mirror problem set questions. Problem sets answer keys will be distributed through the Chem 527 web page (follow the problem sets link).  The answer keys will typically be available the following Thursday evening or early Wednesday.

Recitation Sessions
The course will have several hours of TA run recitation sessions each week to interactively help you understand the material and problem sets.  These sessions will be run by Tara Gonzalez  (tdrake@udel.edu) and Di Cui (dicui@udel.edu), who are the TAs for this course.  If you cannot make one of the times below, e-mail Tara or Di to arrange an alternate time.
Di Cui – Monday 3:30-4:30 PM, 220 BRL
Di Cui – Tuesday 1:00-2:00 PM, 220 BRL
Tara Gonzalez – Wednesday 11:00 – noon, 220 BRL
Tara Gonzalez – Thursday 3:00-4:00 PM, 220 BRL

Prerequisites
One semester of Organic Chemistry or equivalent (CHEM 321 or CHEM 331) is required.  CHEM (322 or 332) and BISC (104 or 207) are recommended.

Exams
Hourly exams will be given on 3/17/15 and 4/30/15 during class in 101 Brown Lab.
A 3 hour final exam will be scheduled during finals week. There will be no make-up hourly exams. No exceptions will be made. In case of an excused absence, the other exams will be weighted accordingly to determine the grade.

Course Objectives
The course presents a one semester survey of the fundamentals of biochemistry. The course is aimed at undergraduate majors in biology and chemistry, graduate students in agriculture, biology, nutrition, marine sciences and engineering not using biochemistry professionally.  Students will develop a biochemical background which will allow them to better understand primary literature, professional presentations and solve problems that are based on a molecular level of cellular processes.

Grading:
Two Hourly Exams: 100 pts each
Final Exam: 150 pts
Total pts: 350 pts

Assigned grades will be scaled, based on the distribution of total points scored.

Departmental Learning Objectives
This course meets departmental learning objectives  1, 4 and 5.

E-mail
Please feel free to contact me by e-mail (bahnson@udel.edu) with questions or to setup an appointment to discuss class questions and issues.

Tentative Order of Topics