Unit 1 Introduction

10 lecture hours

• Fundamental facts of life
• Importance of water as the medium of biological systems
• Concepts of pH, acids
• bases, and buffer systems in biological environments
• Nature of weak and covalent bonds in biomolecules
• Introduction to bioenergetics: laws of thermodynamics in biological systems
• energy transformations, and biological oxidation-reduction reactions

Unit 2 Molecules of Life

15 lecture hours

• Amino Acids and Peptides: Classification
• structure, and chemical properties of amino acids
• Peptide bond formation and the structure of peptides.Proteins: Structural hierarchy of proteins—primary
• tertiary, and quaternary structures
• Structural motifs and domains
• stability, and functional significance
• renaturation, and protein misfolding diseases (e.g.
• prion diseases
• Nucleic Acids: DNA structure
• types of DNA secondary structures (A-DNA
• Z-DNA), and principle classes of RNA (mRNA
• small RNAs)
• DNA supercoiling and chromatin organization
• Carbohydrates: Structure and biological functions of monosaccharides
• glycoproteins, and proteoglycans.Lipids: Structures and functions of fats
• steroids, and membrane lipids
• Lipid bilayers and membrane structure
• Vitamins: Introduction to vitamins
• classification (water-soluble and fat-soluble)
• biochemical functions, and diseases related to vitamin deficiencies

Unit 3 Metabolism

• Overview of metabolic pathways and metabolic integration
• Carbohydrate metabolism: glycolysis
• pentose phosphate pathway
• glycogen metabolism
• Citric acid cycle and its central role in metabolism
• Amino acid catabolism and nitrogen metabolism
• Lipid metabolism: β-oxidation of fatty acids
• biosynthesis of fatty acids
• ketone bodies
• Oxidative phosphorylation and photophosphorylation: mechanisms of ATP synthesis
• electron transport chain
• Nucleotide metabolism: DNA and RNA synthesis and degradation
• Protein metabolism: proteolysis
• ubiquitin-proteasome system
• Introduction to metabolic regulation and hormonal control (insulin
• Basics of signal transduction pathways (cAMP
• IP3-DAG pathways)
• Analytical techniques in biochemistry: spectrophotometry
• mass spectrometry, and techniques for quantification of small and macromolecules. 10 Program Name: Bachelor of Engineering Level: UG Branch: Biotechnology Subject Code: BE04004011 Subject Name: Biochemistry

Unit 4 Enzymes and Enzyme Kinetics

10 lecture hours

• Nature of enzymes as biological catalysts
• Classification of enzymes based on EC system with examples
• Enzyme- catalyzed reaction mechanisms
• Michaelis–Menten kinetics and derivation of kinetic equations
• Advanced enzyme kinetics: Lineweaver-Burk plot
• Eadie- Hofstee plot
• Mechanisms of enzyme action and transition state theory
• Enzyme inhibition: competitive
• uncompetitive, and mixed inhibition
• Regulatory enzymes: allosteric regulation
• covalent modification (phosphorylation)
• feedback inhibition
• Introduction to coenzymes and cofactors (e.g.
• NAD+, FAD, biotin
• Enzyme engineering and industrial applications of enzymes