Chemistry

• GRS CH 621: Biochemistry I
  Introductory biochemistry. Protein structure and folding enzyme mechanisms, kinetics, and allostery; nucleic acid structure; lipids and membrane structure; bioenergetics; vitamins and coenzymes; introduction to intermediary metabolism. Three hours lecture, four hours laboratory, one hour discussion. Same as GRS BI 621. Lecture and laboratory meet with CAS BI/CH 421.
• GRS CH 622: Biochemistry II
  Polysaccharides, energy storage and recognition; intermediary metabolism; lipid and isoprene metabolism; nitrogen metabolism; nucleotide metabolism; macromolecular biosynthesis with emphasis on specificity and fidelity in the mechanisms of RNA, DNA, and proteins synthesis. Three hours lecture, four hours laboratory, one hour discussion. Same as GRS BI 622. Lecture and laboratory meet with CAS BI/CH 422
• GRS CH 623: Chemical Biology
  Research at the chemistry-biology interface, including directed evolution, unnatural amino acid mutagenesis, chemical genetics, proteomics, and fluorescent reporters of enzyme function. Reading, discussing and evaluating the current chemical biology literature is a significant component of the course.
• GRS CH 626: Epigenetics
  Surveys protein post-translational modifications and DNA/RNA processing, including mechanistic enzymology of protein and DNA modifications, signal transduction induced by the modifications, and related practical applications.
• GRS CH 629: DNA Nanotechnology
  Structural biology of DNA. Synthetic DNA objects, DNA templated synthesis, DNAzymes. While biological function is mentioned, the main focus is DNA in nanotechnology, not the involvement of DNA in cell and molecular biology.
• GRS CH 631: Advanced Coordination Chemistry I: Structure and Bonding
  The interdependence of chemical bonding, spectroscopic characteristics, and reactivity properties of coordination compounds and complexes are described and formalized using the fundamental concept of symmetry, as applied to inorganic coordination complexes.
• GRS CH 633: Physical Methods for Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry
  A discussion of the physical techniques for the study of structural, magnetic, and redox-active properties of transitional metal complexes. Techniques discussed include x-ray crystallography; x-ray absorption; vibrational, NMR, EPR, and Mossbauer spectroscopies; and electrochemistry.
• GRS CH 641: Physical Organic Chemistry
  Physical fundamentals of organic chemistry. Thermodynamics, kinetics, molecular orbital theory, and theory of concerted reactions. Isotope effects, aromaticity, linear free energy relationships, acidity functions, photo- and free-radical chemistry.
• GRS CH 642: Organic Reaction Mechanisms
  Fundamentals of organic reaction mechanisms. Techniques used to study reaction mechanisms. Reactive intermediates: carbonium ions, radicals, carbenes, and nitrenes. Acid/base catalysis, reactions for the carbonyl group, cycloaddition, nucleophilic displacement reactions, and redox chemistry.
• GRS CH 643: Synthetic Methods of Organic Chemistry
  Organic synthesis strategies for total synthesis. Various approaches for organic molecules whose synthesis constitutes major contributions to organic chemistry.
• GRS CH 644: Medicinal Chemistry
  Synthetic organic chemistry and pharmacology as applied to development, testing, and production of medically useful agents. Lectures and discussions by research chemists affiliated with leading pharmaceutical companies. A research paper is required.
• GRS CH 651: Molecular Quantum Mechanics I
  Postulates of quantum mechanics with emphasis on chemical applications; application to model systems: particle in a box, harmonic oscillator, rigid rotor, hydrogen atom; tunneling; angular momentum theory, spin; ladder operators, computational methods.
• GRS CH 652: Molecular Quantum Mechanics II
  The chemical bond; Huckel, molecular orbital, and valence bond theories; ab initio methods, density functional theory; Born-Oppenheimer approximation/breakdown; time-dependent processes; Fermi's golden rule; non-adiabaticity; time-dependent perturbation theory; computational methods.
• GRS CH 655: Statistical Mechanics I
  Introduction to statistical mechanical fundamentals; ensemble theory, Fermi-Dirac, Bose-Einstein, Gibbs-Boltzmann statistics; computational methods, Monte Carlo, Molecular Dynamics, many-body quantum mechanical simulations, normal mode analysis; ergodic hypothesis, modern theories of liquids and biomolecules, thermodynamic perturbation theory, integral equations, Debye-Huckel theory.
• GRS CH 699: Teaching College Chemistry I
  The goals, contents, and methods of instruction in chemistry. General teaching-learning issues. Required of all teaching fellows.
• GRS CH 724: Special Topics in Biochmeistry
  Detailed analysis of special topics of research in biochemistry. Topics are determined by the instructor depending on interest and expertise. Subjects covered include protein analysis, mechanistic enzymology, nucleic acid research, protein/nucleic acid interactions, and spectroscopic methods.
• GRS CH 741: Organic Spectroscopy and Structure Determination
  Spectroscopic methods in organic structure determination, with main emphasis on nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry.
• GRS CH 744: Current Topics in Organic Chemistry
  Current topics in advanced organic chemistry. Content varies with instructor, and may include "The Chemistry of Biotechnology," "Drug Discovery," "Organic Chemistry of Soft Materials," "Biomimetic Total Synthesis" and other themes related to the instructor's research interests.
• GRS CH 801: Graduate Research Methods and Scholarly Writing 1
  Introduces beginning graduate students to the fundamental methods of research, presentation, and scholarship necessary for a successful career as a graduate student, a teacher, and an independent research scientist. Includes RCR (responsible conduct of research) training.
• GRS CH 802: Graduate Research Methods and Scholarly Writing 2
  Continues subject material of GRS CH 801 with more emphasis on writing.

Back to full list of Courses