This course aims to encourage the acquisition of general knowledge of the thermodynamics principles governing the biological processes.  These involve study of the energy transductions that occur in and between living organisms, structures and cells.

2 lectures per week

None

None

100% Examination

The aims of this course are to:

■ provide students with the knowledge and skills to use thermodynamic principles and models for the analysis and description of biological processes;

■ provide students with the knowledge and skills to use thermodynamics principles for identifying the equilibrium state, use the concept of energy (thermodynamic potentials) and analyse cyclic processes

■ provide students with the knowledge and skills to apply thermodynamics principles to differentiate between thermodynamically favourable and unfavourable biological reactions;

■ provide students with the skills to analyse the thermodynamics of in vivo and in vitro enzymatic reactions;

■ provide students with the skills to analyse the thermodynamics of energy carriers in biological systems; 

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ apply the principles of thermodynamics to a broad range of biological processes, such as osmosis, protein solubility, calorimetry, dynamics;

■ describe the equilibrium state of living biological systems, such as cells and proteins, and evaluate enzymatic reactions

■ classify different energy transduction processes, such as those involving ATP;

■ recognize favourable and/or unfavourable biological reactions;

■ describe modern thermodynamic models of biological systems and have a key understanding how to model thermodynamic systems using appropriate variables

■ apply basic thermodynamic concepts, such as thermodynamic potentials or cyclic processes, to model systems.

Students must attend the degree examination and submit at least 75% by weight of the other components of the course's summative assessment.

Students must attend the timetabled laboratory classes.

Students should attend at least 75% of the timetabled classes of the course.

Note that these are minimum requirements: good students will achieve far higher participation/submission rates.  Any student who misses an assessment or a significant number of classes because of illness or other good cause should report this by completing a MyCampus absence report.