PH 549: Physics of Biological Systems

Instructor Name: Mithun Mitra
Course Name: Physics of Biological Systems (PH 549)
Course Type: Theory (Honors/Electives)
Credits: 6
Pre-requisites: No formal prerequisites but knowledge of basic statistical physics helps

Course Content: 

1. Diffusion and drift 2. Fluid flow, Navier Stokes Equation 3. Equilibrium Stat Mech and applications, Chemical potential, MWC model of Haemoglobin 4. Polymer models, FJC and FRC, Force-extension curves, Protein folding, Chromatin packing 5. Crowding in biological systems 6. Non-equilibrium systems, Rate equations and reaction kinetics, Cytoskeletal polymerization 7. Molecular motors 8. Pattern formation in biology, Schnakenberg kinetics

Books:

Physical biology of the cell - Rob Phillips Biological physics: Energy, Information and life - Phil Nelson

Lectures:

There was no attendance policy. The professor used both slides and blackboard. Since all the exams were open book, it really helps to attend all the lectures.

Assignments:

There were 5 tutorials given which had to be submitted as assignments. Apart from these, there was a course project where we could choose any topic of interest and read up a few research papers on it to give a 10 minute presentation at the end of the semester. Most of the tutorials were easier compared to the questions asked in the exams.

Exams and Grading:

There were 2 quizzes, one of which was take-home, apart from the midsem and endsem. The exams were in general challenging and required a lot of lateral thinking. It was quite interesting as well, as many of the problems were directly picked up from research papers and we could see the direct implications of the concepts taught in class.

Respondent: Sowmya