Fundamentals of Biophysics

Course goals

Learning Goals
After completion of the course, the student

1. understands the time and length scales relevant in biology.
2. is familiar with the basics of molecular and cellular biology, including the key molecules and cells.
3. understands and can apply key models, such a binding equilibria and cooperativity, random walks, and diffusion, in biophysics.
4. understands the basics of transcription, translation, and gene regulatory motifs in bacteria.

Content

Content
Biological systems pose deep and fundamental scientific questions. For example: What is life and how did it emerge on earth? How do active, out-of-equilibrium systems operate? How do biological systems create millions of copies, sometimes with atomic precision, at constant temperature?
Biophysics uses both experimental tools and theoretical models from physics and applies them to biological problems. Conversely, the study of biological systems has inspired new physical models and pushed the experimental frontier. This course aims to give a broad overview of key concepts in biology and biophysical models and techniques. We will highlight both fundamental questions, but also applications to topics of current interest. The emphasis of the course are order-of-magnitude estimates and a understanding of concepts. The aim of the course is to give students a broad overview and working knowledge of key concepts and models in biophysics, with a focus on molecular and cellular scales. In addition, we will discuss examples from the historical and current literature on the topics.