PCC-12803 General Chemistry for the Life Sciences

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Studiepunten 3.00

Language of instruction:

Dutch

Contents:

Living organisms have a remarkable capacity to regulate physiologically the inner environment. Electrolyte levels, pH-levels, redox potentials are all kept within certain limits to ensure internal stability. Several organs including the liver, the kidneys, and the nervous and endocrine systems help maintain homeostasis by triggering biochemical and physico-chemical mechanisms. In this course physico-chemical mechanisms involved in homeostasis are treated. These mechanisms include energy exchange, molecular interactions, various types of equilibrium, buffer systems, ATP-coupling, redox potentials and reaction kinetics. Some of these mechanisms are interpreted from the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Several physico-chemical aspects of transport, storage, synthesis and breakdown of substances and cellular components such as membranes are treated as well.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- interpret processes in living organisms from a consideration of thermodynamic laws;
- relate Gibbs energy and redox potential to the equilibrium constant of a physico-chemical process;
- calculate the ATP-requirement for a particular process;
- calculate the pH and buffer capacity of acids, bases and mixtures of these;
- do calculations that relate to reaction rates for zero-, first- and second-order reactions;
- handle physical and chemical units and dimensions;
- recognize physico-chemical concepts in relation to transport, storage, synthesis and breakdown of substances and cellular components;
- carry out experiments in the domain of general and physical chemistry following a given protocol and report on these experiments.

Activities:

- participate in lectures;
- tutorials;
- practical's and self-study.

Examination:

- Written exam with multiple choice questions.
All practical's need to be completed successfully (go/no go). Interim results are valid for three years.

Literature:

Crowe, J.; Bradshaw, T. (2010). Chemistry for the biosciences: the essential concepts. Oxford Universiy Press. 678p. ISBN:9780199570874.
Practical manual. Both available from the WUR-shop.