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BME 595B Biomolecular Engineering

Course Overview:
This 3-credit BME graduate course covers the experimental and computational tools useful to analyze biological molecules and molecular systems, potential applications of DNA molecules for designing nano-scale motors, switches, and computers.

Prerequisite
Students should be able to solve ordinary differential equations and to use some software programming tools (e.g., Matlab, C, Visual Basic, etc.). Prior knowledge of structure and function of DNA and proteins is highly recommended. Consultation with the instructor is encouraged.

Course Description
DNA and proteins are two types of macromolecules in cells, and the course introduces the principles and methods to study and use these molecules. The first module (two thirds) covers experimental analysis and mathematical modeling of DNA/protein molecules, and the second module (one third) covers computational analyses of DNA/protein databases. The topics include chemistry and biology of DNA/protein, recombinant technology, electrophoresis, PCR, single molecular manipulations, construction of macromolecule-based devices, microarray technologies, NP complete problems, dynamics programming and heuristics, sequence comparison and DNA assembly, and protein identification and characterization.

Required Textbooks
There are no required textbooks. Handouts and journal articles are made available to the students.

Recommended Textbooks
Cantor, C.R., and Smith, C.L.: Genomics - The Science and Technology behind the Human Genome Project, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.

Waterman, M.S.: Chapter 1 (Some Molecular Biology) in Introduction to Computational Biology (Maps, sequence and genome), pp. 5-26, Chapman & Hall, 1995 (ISBN 0 412 99391 0).