1. Biomedical Week 2 This is a very brief review of biochemistry and how this effects cells.

2. The following material is based and borrowe d from a course called Biochemistry online: An approach based on chemical logic http://employees.csbsju.edu/hjakubowski/classes/ch331/bcintro/default.html

3. Three important ideas from chemistry are: 1.The structure of a molecule will cause the function/activity of the molecule; 2.Binding reactions are what start all biological events; and 3.Chemical ideas can be applied to the behavior of macromolecules.

4. This leads us to some questions. We will try to apply some of these questions to the study of nerve cells.

5. First we will think of a general cell.

8. 0. How is the genetic information carried in DNA transcribed into a RNA molecule? How is this information then translated into a protein?

10. 1.How do lipids join thermodynamically spontaneously to form structures like biological membranes? Without membranes cells and life could not exist.

11. A summary of lipids is at http://employees.csbsju.edu/hjakubowski/cla sses/ch250/CelltutorialCHEM250_Lipids.p ptx The site linked above is written and maintained by Henry V. Jakubowski, Ph.D., College of Saint Benedict / Saint John's University. These materials are available for educational use.

13. 2. How do proteins fold to form structures with a unique 3D shape? How do these 3D structures give a specific function to proteins? How do proteins, which are synthesized in the cytoplasm, know where to go?

15. 3. How do proteins form membrane receptors and channels? 4. How do they allow passage of hydrophilic molecules into the cell?

17. 5. How do proteins catalyze and regulate how specific proteins are made? How does a cell know what kind of cell it is to be? How does a cell know what kind of proteins to make?

19. 7. How can enzymatic reactions be regulated so the cell can biosynthesize and get energy? How are reactions brought together in pathways? How are whole pathways regulated?

21. 8. What are the organic workings which occur when enzymes catalyze biochemical reactions? How can we find out these workings?

23. 9. How can the cell sense environmental signals and respond the correct way? How can a cell send out chemical signals?

25. 10. How do problems in these pieces of cellular molecular machinery lead to diseases? How do toxic "substances" like heavy metals, bacterial toxins, viruses, and oxygen effect damage and cause disease?

27. The following picture shows these questions placed in a diagram of the cell.

29. We will look at some answers to these questions when we study the nervous system.

30. Here is a diagram which shows the different proteins of cells (different genes) grouped by function.

33. Write down these groups from the biggest to the smallest. Which is the biggest group? What do these proteins do?

34. Write down these groups from the biggest to the smallest in the following table. Write down the functions of each group.

35. GroupFunctions of Group