UBC Biochemistry requirement confuses me

[Guest richmond604]

I will have 2 biochemsitry courses done by the end of this year. One is @ 200 level and the other is @ 300. I don't know if I should take another semester of biochemistry (Biochemistry of Macromolecules) .....as I don't need it for my degree. I've consulted the admissions website and I think I've learned most the stuff (except "Lineweaver-Burk plots?"....) Things like Henderson-Hasselbalch equation should've been covered in general chemistry? Bohr effect covered in physiology.....etc etc

 

any comments? thanks

 

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1. BIOMOLECULES

 

Introduction and review; Review of pH, chemical bonds, properties of water, etc. Fatty acids; Structure, properties, and nomenclature. Carbohydrates; Structure, properties, and nomenclature; Stereoisomers, disaccharides and polysaccharides, digestion. Nucleotides; Structure, properties, and nomenclature; tautomerism. Amino acids; Structure, properties, and nomenclature; Henderson-Hasselbalch equation; Properties of side chains, peptide bonds, disulfide bonds. Proteins;

 

Structure (10, 20, 3 & 4), protein folding, denaturation; Examples of fibrous proteins (keratin, fibroin, collagen); Examples of globular proteins (myoglobin and hemoglobin); Hemoglobin: molecular mechanisms (cooperative effect, Bohr effect,& effect of 2,3-BPG); Fetal hemoglobin; carbon monoxide; sickle cell anemia. Enzymes; General properties (effects of temperature and pH, specificity, cofactors); Mechanism of the serine proteases; Kinetics (Michaelis-Menten equation, Lineweaver-Burk plots); Allosteric enzymes, inhibitors. Lipids and membranes; Phospholipids, sphingolipids, glycolipids and glycoprotems.

 

II. METABOLISM

 

Thermodynamics; Entropy; relation of Keq, DG, and DGO'; coupled reactions; Energetics of ATP. Glycolysis. Overview; Details of reactions, energetics, enzyme nomenclature; Biological oxidations and reductions, cofactors (NAD, NADP, FAD)

 

Anaerobic metabolism.

 

Pyruvate dehydrogenase and acetyl Co; Krebs cycle; Oxidative phosphorylation; Mitochondria, reduction potentials, chemiosmotic mechanism; Structures and properties of respiratory chain complexes and carriers; F0FjATPase, P/O ratio, blockers and uncouplers; Transport across mitochonrial membrane (glycerol phosphate shuttle, malate aspartate shuttle, ATP/ADP translocase); Glycogen and glycogenolysis; Gluconeogenesis; Role in metabolism, reactions, biotin dependent enzymes; Pentose phosphate pathway; Regulation of metabolism; General principles; Examples of control of glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, and Krebs cycle; Hormones and signal transduction; control of glycogen metabolism; Overview of control of blood glucose; Metabolism of lipids; Oxidation of fatty acids, oxidation of propionyl CoA, cobalamin; Synthesis of fatty acids in E. coli and in humans; Synthesis of odd numbered and methylated fatty acids; Elongation and desaturation; Metabolism of triacylglycerol; Control of lipid metabolism; Ketones (synthesis, starvation, diabetes); Metabolism of amino acids; Overview, nutrition; Nitrogen metabolism (aminotransferases, urea cycle); Catabolism of amino acids: role in gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis; Specific pathways; inborn errors of metabolism; Synthesis of neurotransmitters; Comparison of monooxygenases, dioxygenases, and oxidases. One carbon metabolism. S-adenosyl methionine, tetrahydrofolate; Metabolism of nucleotides; Synthesis and catabolism of pyrimidines and purines; synthesis of deoxyribonucleotides; synthesis of thymine (amethopterin and cancer chemotherapy); Comparison of folate deficiency and cobalamin deficiency; Synthesis of cholesterol; Lipoproteins and lipid transport; Medical implications, familial hypercholesterolemia; Miscellaneous topics. [steroids, PG's]

 

III. MOLECULAR GENETICS

 

Overview, central dogma. DNA; Structure (base pairs; A, B, & Z helices; denaturing, supercoiling); DNA synthesis (replication); Overview: Enzymes (DNA polymerases, primase, helicase, ligase, topoisomerases); Sequence of events (origin, lagging strand). RNA; RNA synthesis (transcription); RNA polymerase, promotors, termination, Rho protein; Control of prokaryotic transcription, lac operon; Synthesis of tRNA and rRNA, nibozymes; Comparison of prokaryotic and eukaryotic transcription; Modification of eukaryotic mRNA, introns, snRNP's; Protein synthesis (translation); The genetic code; Structure of tRNA, wobble hypothesis, structure of ribosomes; Sequence of events; Comparison of prokaryotic and eukaryotic protein synthesis; Repair of DNA; Mutation, errors in replication; Repair of pyrimidine dimers, deamination of cytosine; Laboratory techniques; Plasmids, retroviruses, restriction enzymes; Electrophoresis, Southern blots, cloning DNA in E. coli.

[Guest Paulchemguy]

Why don't you just email the Admissions people directly? Tell them which university you took those biochem courses in.

[Guest sensodyne]

I don't know which university you are going to but I'm guessing that your school is not listed in the pre-req table on the ubc website. Like the last person said, just email them and make sure you save that reply. In fact, save all correspondence w/ them b/c you never know when you might need it.

 

I went to UVic, and UBC required us to take bioc200, a semester course, and also bioc 300,which is a year-long course. If you're gonig to be in Vancouver this Summer, you can also take their bioc 300, which is compressed into 6 weeks but is regularly year-long. I believe there's also a correspondence course available through Athabasca.

[Guest richmond604]

Hey, thanks for the replies...but...I did email them with the course numbers. But I got a very vague reply....

 

"You will need to review the course content listed on our sample

Biochemistry outline and compare them against what you covered in your

McGill courses:

 

If the McGill courses you've listed covers all the topics and depth

listed in our sample outline then you have completed our Biochem

requirement. Please remember to include detailed week by week course

syllabi when you submit the paper based portions of your application."

 

Do all non-UBC undergrads go through this process....

 

I know they used to verify the courses for us non-ubc undergrads but it seems now they just want us to compare the courses ourselves :rolleyes

[Guest kellyl20]

just get the sylibi and send it to them/registrar and they will have to evaluate. THis is for every school that had not done an evaluation for the course before.

[Guest jammyjams]

if you're at mcgill then I believe bio 200 and 201 suffice for the biochem requirement

[Guest richmond604]

if you're at mcgill then I believe bio 200 and 201 suffice for the biochem requirement

 

that's comforting, thanks! I'm not doing BIO201 though, BIOC 212 instead

 

thanks again to ppl who replied