Biological transport: Quantitative Aspects
Code
7135
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Department
Departamento de Química
Credits
6.0
Teacher in charge
Teresa Maria Fonseca de Moura
Weekly hours
7
Total hours
68
Teaching language
Português
Objectives
General objectives:
Teaching is organized around learning settings that aim at the training in transferable aptitudes and so resistant to the volatility of the contents, which can change accordingly to the scientific progresses.
Teaching quantitative biology is one of the main concerns, as it is believed that the use of mathematical models in biological sciences is becoming essential. It is more and more accepted that organisms are complex systems, in the strictest sense of the term. Organisms, in their different levels of organization (cell, tissue, organ, system), show complex mechanisms of adaptive regulation, based on multiple feedback circuits.
Specific objectives:
Build and perform numerical simulations of mathematical models describing the dynamic behaviour of metabolic systems, cells and epithelia.
Subject matter
Mathematical modeling and numerical simulations of enzyme reactions, with or without cooperativity, with one or more substrates, in the presence or absence of chemical effectors. Mathematical model of metabolic systems and biological transport.
Mathematical modeling and numerical simulations of cells and epithelia in steady state and transient conditions. Hodgkin-Huxley excitability model.
Bibliography
Fundamentals of Enzyme Kinetics. 2004 (3rd edition) by Athel Cornish-Bowden, Portland
Computational Analysis of Biochemical Systems – a practical guide for biochemists and molecular biologists Eberhard O. Voit, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000
Understanding the Control of Metabolism. David Fell, Portland Press, London, 1997
HANDBOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY Chapter 6 - Basic Principles of Transport. Macey, Robert I. and Moura, Teresa F. American Physiological Society, Oxford University Press. New York. Ed. Joseph F. Hoffmann and James D. Jameson. 1997.
The biophysical basis of excitability, by Hugo Gil Ferreira; Michael W Marshall. Publisher: Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Teaching method
The teaching is organized in theoretical classes, problem solving sessions and numerical simulation classes (practical classes). In the first numerical simulation session the students will learn how to use several numerical models where the concepts developed in the theoretical classes will appear. The students will learn to use the informatic tools necessary for the development of a numerical models. In the following classes the students should individually develop a mathematical model from one of the biological systems previously discussed and to be able to numerically simulate it under several conditions.
Evaluation method
The evaluation is comprised of a theoretical part and of a practical part, being the final grade an average of the two parts: Final grade = 50% theoretical grade + 50% practical grade..
The theoretical grade is the final exam grade. The practical grade will be the result of the numerical simulation model build by the student.