(Hayashi)
Although the life is so complicated as to seem to be mysterious, the microscopic and molecular elementary processes consist of simple physical events. However, when those simple events run together and fuse into each other, not only the complexity will be raised, but also qualitatively different ‘physical phenomena’ will be generated. That is the essence of the life. Biophysics deals with the ultimate physical phenomena created by the nature in the eternal flow of time. In this course, novel pictures of life drawn by biophysics will be shown, and approaches to reveal the essence of the life by the biophysics will be summarized.
(Matsushita)
Any living creature cannot continue to live without acquiring information from the outer world and properly responding to it. In multi-cellar livings, the sensory system consists of a receptor cell and neurons. The former cell receive a signal and generate a voltage pulse and the latter cells transfer the pulse in one direction to the destination. As an example of sensory system, vision will be outlined.
Biophysics is an area of natural science to tackle the eternal problem of life and death by means of physics. In the twentieth century, owing to the rapid advance of modern physics and technology, observation of life activities has become molecular level. As a result the knowledge of life has been expanded the knowledge of life enormously. Will the humankind become able to completely understand life and conquer death? To start with a long journey to answer this question, the very basic knowledge will be provided in this course.
Life Science, Biophysics, Molecular Biology
✔ Specialist skills | Intercultural skills | Communication skills | Critical thinking skills | Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
The course will be given by two lectures active in different research fields, one in physics, the other in life science.
Course schedule | Required learning | |
---|---|---|
Class 1 | Introduction: Summary of biomolecules | Introduction |
Class 2 | Principles of functional architecture of proteins | Functional architecture of proteins |
Class 3 | Principles of functional architecture of nucleic acids | Functional architecture of nucleic acids |
Class 4 | Phasing approaches to observe biomolecules: Circular dichroism (CD), Surface plasmon resonance (SPR), Mass spectrometry, Solution small angel X-ray/neutron scattering, Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) | Circular dichroism (CD), Surface plasmon resonance (SPR), Mass spectrometry, Solution small angel X-ray/neutron scattering, Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) |
Class 5 | Surface plasmon resonance (SPR), Mass spectrometry, Solution small angel X-ray/neutron scattering, Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) | Circular dichroism (CD), Surface plasmon resonance (SPR), Mass spectrometry, Solution small angel X-ray/neutron scattering, Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) |
Class 6 | Understanding of the life using biophysics 1(case studies): Molecular mechanism of signaling on bio-membrane micro-domain. | Molecular mechanism of signaling on bio-membrane micro-domain. |
Class 7 | Understanding of the life using biophysics 2(case studies): Molecular mechanism of signaling on bio-membrane micro-domain. | Molecular mechanism of signaling on bio-membrane micro-domain. |
Class 8 | Neuron and active potential | How does neurons work? |
Class 9 | Propagation of active potential and ion channel | Active potential of neurons controlled by ion channel. |
Class 10 | Inter-cellar signal transduction I | What happens in synapse? |
Class 11 | Inter-cellar signal transduction II | What happens in synapse? |
Class 12 | Mechanism of sensory systems | How do Receptor protein and G-protein work in sensing. |
Class 13 | Vision | Sensitivity and signal amplification |
Class 14 | Photosynthesis I | Energy transfer |
Class 15 | Photosynthesis II | Electron transfer |
None specified.
None specified.
Attendance and Reports
No prerequisites.