CHEM 326
Chemical Biology: Discoveries at the Interface Fall 2017
Division III
This is not the current course catalog

Complex biological behavior is driven by the chemistry of biological molecules including secondary messengers, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Chemists and biologists have recognized that manipulating the chemistry of these systems affords a powerful method to regulate and study cellular activity. The burgeoning field of chemical biology encompasses these efforts. This course introduces the tools of chemical biology, focusing on how small chemical molecules directed at biological systems facilitate answering important questions in biology. Building upon this foundation of chemical and biological techniques, this course will study current applications of these techniques through case studies of recent discoveries. Example topics that may be covered include bioconjugation, chemical genetics, extending the genetic code, activity-based probes and fragment-based drug discovery.