Undergraduate Course: Biochemical Techniques (BICH10006)

Course Outline
School	School of Biological Sciences	College	College of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	We aim to reinforce and extend your knowledge of biochemical techniques (especially in so-called 'wet biochemistry') and to introduce you to new physical techniques in selected fields of current interest (especially those of relevance in structural biology). In the 'wet biochemistry' section the aim is to give you insight into selecting the simplest effective approach for solving the biochemical problem in hand. In the 'structural techniques' section we shall show how the answers to many fascinating questions in biology can be obtained by applying physical chemical techniques. Application of these techniques now in everyday use, has improved in recent years so that the scientist is relatively free to concentrate on the biology of the problem rather than the collection of the data needed to consider the problem. A major advance in this regard is the relatively straightforward means by which an accurate 3-D structure can be obtained. The aim of this section, then, is to review some of the methods by which biomolecular structure is determined, how these methods combine to give a full picture of the structure and function of the biological system under study, which can be a single subunit, a whole molecule or a more complex assembly, and thereby show why such knowledge is an essential part of modern biochemistry, molecular biology and pharmacology.
Course description	Not entered

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites	Students MUST have passed: Structures and Functions of Proteins 3 (BILG09015)	Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None
Additional Costs	Notepads

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2022/23, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 32, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 66 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 80 %, Coursework 0 %, Practical Exam 20 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Exam
Feedback	Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name		Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S1 (December)			2:00

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: Understand and explain the physical basis of various biochemical techniques. Select, justify and prioritise biophysical experimental approaches to address a biological question. Précis and present a scientific study in poster format and discuss it orally. Solve problems, interpret biochemical data and perform numerical or quantitative data handling, independently and in groups. Understand and explain how complementary biochemical methods can be applied in combination to tackle a biochemistry research problem.