Dr. Paul Mazzocchi Dr. Bruce Jarvis

3 Credits

General discussion of chemical and biological reactivity including ester and amide hydrolysis, mixed anhydrides of phosphoric acids and other relevant systems. A survey of the basic chemistry of amino acids, peptides, proteins and nucleic acids, followed by a variety of related topics such as protein folding, intermolecular forces influencing protein and nucleic acid chemistry, molecular recognition as it pertains to substrate-protein, protein-protein, protein-DNA and DNA-drug interactions, the chemical basis of catalysis in biological systems, rational drug design, antibiotic action and metabolism, the synthesis of nucleic acids (RNA in particular), and the chemical basis of mutation.