lesson
date
lesson topics
total time
1
14/3/2014
Introduction to biophysics.
Diffusion processes.
2
2
21/3/2014
Diffusion processes (ctd.).
Discussion of the optimization of cell receptors from
diffusion and the electrostatic analogy. Further features of
diffusion processes. Reaction-diffusion equations and their
applications to morphogenesis.
4
3
27/3/2014
The physics of water. Hydrogen
bonds. Ice. Residual entropy of ice. Proton conduction in
water, and the Grotthuss mechanism. Proton currents in action:
the bacteriorhodopsin-ATP Synthase mechanism for bacterial
photosynthesis.
6
4
28/3/2014
Introduction to crystallography
and its applications to the structural problems of biology.
8
5
3/4/2014
Experimental demonstration:
extraction of DNA. (photos)
The structure of DNA.
10
6
4/4/2014
The statistical mechanics of
DNA.
12
7
11/4/2014
The statistical mechanics of DNA (ctd.). DNA
melting, helix-to-coil transition.
The structure of proteins. Aminoacids. Peptide bonds.
Classification of protein structures.
14
8
15/4/2014
The main features in the secondary structure.
The protein folding problem and Levinthal's paradox.
Homopolymers and the Flory-Huggins theory.
16
9
24/4/2014
Homopolymers and the Flory-Huggins theory
(ctd.). Hydrophobic interactions. Protein folding as a
computational problem.
18
9
13/5/2014
The genetic code. The
Delbruck-Luria experiment. The mechanisms of code translation
and protein building.
20
10
15/5/2014
Numerical estimates. Mutation rates. The
hallmarks of cancer. A simple mathematical model of the age
dependence of colorectal cancer. Peto's paradox.
22
11
16/5/2014
Basics of radiobiology.
24
12
20/5/2014
Enzymes. Refresher of chemical
thermodynamics. Chemical kinetics. Transition-state Theory
(TST). Enzyme action in the context of TST. The
Michaelis-Menten equation. The physics of enzymes.
26
-
20/5/2014
Guided tour of the X-ray diffraction line of
Elettra - Sincrotrone Trieste (the tour starts at 14.00; the
meeting point is the bus stop close to the main parking lot;
students can take bus
51, that leaves the bus stop in front of the central
train station at 13.40, stops just in front of the physics
department a few minutes later, and is scheduled to arrive
at 14.00 at Elettra).
(link to photos of
the visit)28
14
23/5/2014
Seminar on Boron Neutron
Capture Therapy delivered by dr. Sabrina Stella. Seminar on
medical imaging by dr. Luigi Rigon.
30
15
9/6/2014
The biophysics of viruses. The shape of
viruses. The Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV). Bacteriophage phi X
174. Thermodynamics of viral self-assembly. Viral
quasispecies. Bioengineered TMV's.
32