Chemistry

  • CAS CH 524: Chemical Biology Laboratory
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASBI421 OR CASCH421) 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.
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS CH 541: Natural Products Chemistry
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASCH212 or CAS CH 214; or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Chemical and biosynthetic pathways leading to important natural products derived from fatty acids, terpenes, amino acids, polyketides, shikimic acid, and other biosynthetic intermediates. Three hours lecture, one-hour discussion.
  • CAS CH 550: Materials Chemistry
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS CH 112 (or CH 110 or CH 102/201) and CAS CH 212 (or CH 214) and CA S PY 212; or consent of instructor. - Structure, synthesis, properties of hard and soft materials (alternate years) are covered.
  • 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 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.
  • CAS CH 642: Organic Reaction Mechanisms
    Graduate Prerequisites: (CASCH212 & CASCH301) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Fundamentals of organic reaction mechanisms related to acid/base catalysis, reactions of the carbonyl group, cycloadditions, nucleophilic displacement reactions, and redox chemistry.
  • CAS CH 643: Synthetic Methods of Organic Chemistry
    Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH642) - Organic synthesis strategies for total synthesis of complex natural products. Various approaches for organic molecules whose synthesis constitutes major contributions to organic chemistry.
  • CAS CH 645: Transition Metal Chemistry
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing and CAS CH 203/204 (or CH 203/214 or CH 211/212) and C H 232; recommended corequisite: CH 301. - Introduction to the concepts of transition metal-mediated reactions and mechanisms, including electronic structure and properties, reaction mechanisms, kinetics, organometallic compounds, catalytic reactions, and aspects of asymmetric catalysis.
  • CAS CH 646: Organic Spectroscopy and Structure Determination
    Graduate Prerequisites: (CASCH212 & CASCH351) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Spectroscopic methods in organic structure determination, including mass spectrometry with main emphasis on nuclear magnetic resonance.
  • CAS CH 647: The Chemistry of Biotechnology
    Graduate Prerequisites: CAS CH 212 or CAS CH 214, CAS CH 301, CAS CH 422. - This course focuses on the application of chemical principles in different biotechnologies. With the importance of the biotechnology sector nationally and in Boston, this interdisciplinary course explores how the chemical sciences contribute to this growing area.