Molecular and Cell Biology 102

Principles of Biochemistry
and
Molecular Biology


University of California
Berkeley

Summer Session 2009

Current students should consult the syllabus for the URL of the class web page, which is not reachable from this public page.


Site last updated 9 June 2009


The Course:

This course will present the fundamentals of biochemistry and molecular biology. We will cover the structure and function of proteins and other biomolecules, basic metabolism, and the structure and expression of genetic information.

The level of the class is appropriate for majors in biochemistry-dependent subjects such as neurobiology, cell and developmental biology, nutrition, or microbiology, and for pre-professional students. Students must have a strong background in organic chemistry, and have mastered the sections on introductory cell biology, genetics, and metabolism that are taught in Bio 1A.

If you have not completed Biology 1A and a year of organic chemistry, you should not enroll in this class.

If your goal is to earn a Ph.D. in biochemistry/molecular biology and spend your life elucidating the reaction mechanisms of enzymes, you should take the more in-depth, two-semester series MCB 100-110.

This is a four-unit course.


The Schedule - Summer 2009

Lectures Tuesday through Thursday, 8:40-10:30am, 155 Dwinelle

Discussion sections with teaching assistants, TW 11-12, or TW 12-1

Both the lecture and the discussion sessions are required for all students.

This is an eight-week course: 23 June - 13 August 2009.


There will be three midterms, all on Thursdays, at the end of the 2nd, 4th, and 6th weeks of class, and a final on the last day of class. All exams will be during normal class hours. There will be no makeup exams, and no date changes for exams are possible.

Two 10-point, closed-book quizzes will be held during discussion section. The first quiz will be on Tuesday of the second week of class (30 June) on the structures and chemistry of the 'R' groups of the 20 amino acids commonly used in proteins.


The Prerequisites

  • The 'biochemistry and cell biology semester' of Biology 1 (at Cal, Biology 1A), which introduces the structure and function of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, the biomolecules of which they are composed, and basic genetics (roughly what is covered in Chapters 1-20 of Campbell and Reece, Biology, 7th edition).
  • A year of organic chemistry (at Cal, through Chem 3B). In order to make sense of the biochemical reactions we will be studying, you need have a good understanding of the material normally taught at the end of the year of organic.

    • We will review some of these subjects briefly when they are needed, but if you have not studied them previously, the level of review will not be sufficient for you to learn them. The pace of this course -- an 1100-page textbook in eight weeks -- is such that we cannot spend time on subjects which are not part of the course.

    Note that the term is PRErequisite!
    These courses should NOT be taken concurrently with MCB 102.

    The Text:

    Lehninger Required readings (see below) are selected from: Nelson, D., and Cox, M. (2008) Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 5th ed. Worth Publishers, New York.

    This edition of the text was published in early 2008. Previous editions of the text will NOT be acceptible substitutes.

    Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry is the only text or reader that you are required to purchase for this course.


    If you order online, be careful which edition you're ordering! Some online stores are not good at telling you which edition they are offering.



    Study Guide

    There is also a 'study guide' entitled The Absolute, Ultimate Guide to Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry (Osgood and Ocorr). This may not be tremendously useful in preparing for the kinds of 'process-oriented' exams we give. However, there are certainly good things about it; notably, it contains solutions to the problems at the end of the text chapters, and some students may find it a helpful guide in reviewing the facts and concepts we cover.

    The Caveat

    Prospective students should note that the demands of this course are enormous, and incessant.

    Please do not make the mistake of thinking of this as 'a summer course' - it is a regular offering of the MCB Department, taught in the fall, spring, and summer terms. The summer session covers the same material that is taught in the fall and spring terms, and has the same number of lecture hours and required discussion hours. The difference between the course in normal semesters and in summer is that in the summer, you must do the same amount of reading and studying, and master the same amount of material, but you have only half as much time to do it in. Take this into account when planning your summer activities!



    Students who take MCB102 and have no other summer commitments usually find it quite manageable. Many find themselves able to handle this course and another, or this course and part-time employment, though that does make for a pretty taxing summer. (I usually describe the course as a combination of a sprint and a marathon - the pace of a sprint for the duration of a marathon!)

    However, if you have enough time to immerse yourself in the subject and can really master the material, I expect you will find it quite fascinating.

    Last year's reading assignments are linked below, so you can get a feeling for the sort of effort this class will require, and can decide how much you want to take on for the summer term. A previous lecture schedule is still posted also; it will give you a good idea of the pace of the class. [Note that the structure of the course was different last year - there were 4 x 1.5hr instead of 3 x 2hr of lectures per week - so the lectures and readings will not match precisely.]

    "Audaci Favet Fortuna!" *

    The Instructors

    Barbara H. Bowman, Ph.D. (Biochemistry, U.C. Berkeley)
    bowmanb@berkeley.edu*

    I have taught MCB102 in twelve previous summer sessions, starting in 1997, and the first section of Biology 1A at Cal for spring term 2003. I also taught Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology at U.C. Berkeley Extension for many years, and currently teach some mixture of Biology 1 and 2, Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics, and Senior Seminar at Mills College in the fall and spring terms. My current research is the phylogenetic analysis of a rare California grass.

    Isabelle Philipp, Ph.D. (University Innsbruck / Austria, Mol. Biology
    iphilipp@berkeley.edu*

    I have taught MCB102 once previously, in summer of 2008. At the University of Innsbruck I taught lab courses in developmental and molecular biology as a teaching assistant. In my graduate research I worked on Wnt signaling in the Cnidarian Hydra. Now at Cal, I am performing a genetic screen in the African clawed frog Xenopus tropicalis. The goal of this project is to identify molecular pathways that regulate the designation of embryonic stem cells.


    Our office hours will be announced closer to the start of class.

    [*If you write to us, please include 'MCB 102' in your subject line. If your email requires a reply and we don't get back to you within a few days, please write again. Be sure your complete name appears on your letter b/c we do not reply to unidentified emails.]


    Reading Assignments, Summer 2008, EXCEPT that Weeks I and II are now updated for 2009. More to come...

    Week I Week II Week III Week IV
    Week V Week VI Week VII Week VIII

    Special stuff

    Services for disabled students

    If you have questions or comments, please e Dr. Bowman.

    Also, please suggest what information or helpful links should be added to this site. Thank you!

    *" Fortune favors the bold ! " ... Read: "Go for it!" :-)

    Perhaps the flavor of the course is best summed up by this quote from a successful student from 1998:
    "It was hell, but it was a really fun hell." :-)