Physics 172/272 --- Quantitative Molecular Biology

Winter 2007



Instructor: Prof. Terence Hwa; Urey 7246
phone: 4-7263
e-mail: hwa@ucsd.edu
Time: TuTh  11am -- 12:20 pm  (Jan 9 through March 15th)
Location: Mayer 4322 (note: changed from original schedule)
Class size: no restriction
Office Hour: After class or by appointment.
Course URL: http://matisse.ucsd.edu/~hwa/class/w07 (this page)
Grade: combination of problem sets and  term project report
Homework: to be posted below
Prerequisite: undergraduate thermodynamics and statistical mechanics and introductory molecular biology, or consent of instructor  

 Course description

 Reference Books

Course outline

•    Introduction and overview: central dogma, gene regulation, genetic circuits
•    Molecular interaction: kinetics, equilibrium, cooperativity; protein-DNA interaction
•    Transcriptional control by activators and repressors; cooperativity and combinatorial control
•    Post-transcriptional control: attenuation, termination, and degradation
•    Integrated models of gene expression and genetic circuits
•    Growth physiology and metabolic control
•    Evolution of gene regulation

Course activity:


date
topics
assignments
L1 Tu, Jan 9
overview I: of basic molecular biology and bacterial physiology
L2
Th, Jan 11 
flow of genetic information; gene regulation; comparison to eukaryotes

L3
Tu, Jan 16
bacterial growth physiology (Refs: bremer96, donachie68, neidhardt99)
HW1 due 1/25
L4
Th, Jan 18
bacterial growth physiology
protein-DNA interaction: Intro (Refs: fields97, stormo98)

L5
Tu, Jan  23
protein-DNA interaction: thermodynamics (Refs: gerland02)

L6
Th, Jan 25
protein-DNA interaction: kinetics [notes] HW2 due 2/8
(Note new due date)
L7
Tu, Jan 30
intro to transcription: RNA polymerase and sigma factors [notes] Soln to HW 1
L8
Th, Feb 1
transcriptional initiation control: basic model [notes]

L9
Tu, Feb 6
transcriptional initiation control: cooperative regulation [notes]

L10
Th, Feb 8
transcriptional initiation control: DNA looping [notes]
HW3 due 2/22
L11
Tu, Feb 13
transcriptional initiation control: combinatorial regulation [notes] Soln to HW 2
L12 Th, Feb 15
transcription termination, anti-termination,  and elongation [notes]
L13
Tu, Feb 20
translation and its control [notes]
L14
Th, Feb 22
proteolysis and control [notes]
modeling gene expression [notes]
term project
oral: 3/12
L15
Tu, Feb 27
modeling genetic ciurcuit I [notes]

L16
Th, Mar 1
modeling genetic circuit II [notes]
Soln to HW 3
L17
Tu, Mar 6
stochasticity in gene expression [notes], [tutorial]
L18
Th, Mar 8
post-transcriptional control by small RNA [notes]

M, Mar 12
term project presentation, 2:30 - 5:30pm, Urey 7130
report due 3/22
L19
Tu, Mar 13
control of bacteria growth [notes]
HW4 due 3/22
L20
Th, Mar 15
molecular evolution [notes]