Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• CAS BI 983: Continuing Part-Time Study
  Continuing Study Part-Time
• CAS BI 985: Continuing Full-Time Study
  CONT STUDY CFT
• CAS CH 500: Special Topics in Chemistry
  May be repeated for credit as topics vary. Pre-requisites vary with topic.
• CAS CH 524: Chemical Biology Laboratory
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASBB421) or consent of instructor. Project-based laboratory course to introduce students to the design and implementation of modern experimental techniques in chemical biology, including protein-peptide and protein-small molecule interactions, fluorescent binding assays, enzyme activity, and inhibition kinetics. Eight hours of lab weekly in addition to a pre-lab lecture. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Teamwork/Collaboration, Creativity/Innovation.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• CAS CH 525: Physical Biochemistry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASBB421); (CASMA121 OR CASMA123); (CASPY106 OR CASPY212). Cannot be taken as advanced course for chemistry majors or in addition to CAS CH351/352. Introduction to physical chemical principles with topics in biochemistry, solution and solid phase chemistry of biomolecules as studied by equilibrium, hydrodynamics, and spectroscopic/quantum mechanical methods.
• CAS CH 550: Materials Chemistry: Hard Materials
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: General Chemistry 2 (CAS CH 110 or CH 112 or equivalent) or consent of instructor. This course will focus on the structure, synthesis, properties, and applications of solid-state materials. The main topics in this class cover the bonding in solids; formation of crystals; basic crystallography; electron diffraction; defects, phase transformation; general principles about the atomic level growth and characterizations of solid materials.
• CAS CH 551: Materials Chemistry: Polymer Synthesis and Applications
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Organic Chemistry 2 (CAS CH 204, CH212, or CH214 or equivalent) or consent of instructor. The primary objective of this course is to teach the chemistry and engineering skills needed to solve challenges in polymers and polymeric materials. This course is divided into three sections: macromolecular chemistry, physical characterization & properties, and specialty polymer sections. Three hours of lecture weekly.
• CAS CH 623: Chemical Biology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH621) (GRSCH622 recommended), or consent of instructor. - 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.
• CAS CH 624: Macromolecular Structure Determination
  Graduate Prerequisites: CH/BI 421; or equivalent, or consent of instructor - This course covers the determination of structures of biological macromolecules including RNA, DNA, and proteins. Topics include macromolecular assemblies and symmetry, crystal forms, diffraction, phase determination, data acquisition, model building and refinement, model analysis and homology modeling.
• CAS CH 625: Enzymology: Mechanisms of Enzymatic Reactions
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH421) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Covers enzyme structure-function relationships. A tool-box of methods is presented, including kinetics (steady state and pre-steady state methods), isotope effects, stereo-chemical methods, site-directed mutagenesis, methods to replace natural with unnatural amino acids, mechanism based inhibitors.
• CAS CH 627: RNA Structure and Function
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH421) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Chemical and structural biology of natural RNA molecules, including ribosomal RNA, catalytic RNA (ribozymes), siRNA (small interfering RNA), microRNA, long non-coding RNA, riboswitches, and CRISPR.
• CAS CH 628: Protein Chemistry
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH621) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - The structure and function of selected enzymes, motor/pump proteins, and structural protein assemblies, highlighting concepts in macromolecular structure analysis, including linking structure and dynamics to catalysis. Analysis of selected primary literature underscoring structural underpinnings via molecular graphics.
• CAS CH 629: DNA Nanotechnology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Biochemistry (CAS BB 421 or equivalent), or consent of instructor. - Structural biology of DNA, DNA objects, DNA machines, DNA templated synthesis, DNAzymes, DNA computing, DNA origami. Three hours lecture per week.
• CAS CH 631: Advanced Coordination Chemistry I: Structure and Bonding
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH232) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - 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.
• CAS CH 632: Advanced Coordination Chemistry II: Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH232 & CASCH214) or consent of instructor. - The mechanistic study of ligand substitution and electron transfer processes in coordination compounds are discussed in the context of basic molecular orbital theory. The connections between small molecule inorganic and biological macromolecular metal-catalyzed processes are presented.
• CAS CH 633: Physical Methods for Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: ( (CASCH232 & CASCH352) OR GRSCH631) or equivalents, or consent of instructor. - 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.
• CAS CH 634: Metallobiochemistry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH232 & CASCH421) or equivalents, or consent of instructor. - The roles of transition metals in biology are assessed by review of the structural, spectroscopic, and genetic aspects of metallobiochemistry. Metal import and trafficking; cofactor biogenesis; biocatalytic transformations in biochemistry; reactive oxygen species; the inorganic basis of life.
• CAS CH 635: Synthetic Methodology in Inorganic Chemistry
  Graduate Prerequisites: (CASCH232) or equivalent. - The descriptive chemistries of the metallic elements are surveyed to develop a broad knowledge of these elements and how to prepare their compounds and understand the resultant reactivities. Case studies are taken from older and recent literature sources.
• CAS CH 636: Organometallic Catalysis
  This course provides a survey of pertinent topics in catalysis, focusing on organometallic complexes as the catalyst along with their kinetic and mechanistic analysis. The course covers catalytic reactions spanning those of major industrial importance to novel academic interest.
• CAS CH 641: Physical Organic Chemistry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH352) or equivalent or consent of instructor. - 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.