5.54/7.540/20.554  Frontiers in Chemical Biology

Introduction to current research at the interface of chemistry, biology, and bioengineering. Topics include nucleic acid and protein synthesis and semisynthesis; selective labeling of proteins and bioorthogonal reactions; mechanisms of DNA damage; RNA structure and function; enzyme catalyzed protein modification and the elaboration of the proteome; methods for analyzing signaling network dynamics; metabolic pathway engineering and metabolomics; small molecules from tools to therapeutics; chemical biology approaches to infectious disease and the immune system. Lectures are interspersed with class discussions and student presentations based on current literature.