3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

The objective of this course is to develop in students a strong, intuitive, and physically based sense of how fundamental biological processes work—that is, the sizes, shapes, motions, interactions, and cellular functions of biological molecules. Topics will include cell and population growth, diffusion, enzyme kinetics, the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the synthesis, structure, and function of proteins and nucleic acids, least squares equation fitting, Bayesian statistics, and the fluctuation test. The biophysical constraints that dictate the form of the immune system and constraints relevant to development will be discussed.