Courses:

Biological and Biomedical Sciences >> Molecular Pathology


For Course Instructors

  • Advertise your course for free
  • Feature your course listing
  • Create course discussion group
  • Link to your course page
  • Increase student enrollment

More Info...>>


Course Info

  • Course Number / Code:
  • 7.34 (Fall 2005) 
  • Course Title:
  • Nano-life: An Introduction to Virus Structure and Assembly 
  • Course Level:
  • Undergraduate 
  • Offered by :
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
    Massachusetts, United States  
  • Department:
  • Biology 
  • Course Instructor(s):
  • Dr. Melissa Kosinski-Collins
    Dr. Peter Weigele 
  • Course Introduction:
  •  


  • 7.340 Nano-life: An Introduction to Virus Structure and Assembly



    Fall 2005




    Course Highlights


    This course features a complete bibliography of readings and sample student assignments in the assignments section.


    Course Description


    Watson and Crick noted that the size of a viral genome was insufficient to encode a protein large enough to encapsidate it and reasoned, therefore that a virus shell must be composed of multiple, but identical subunits. Today, high resolution structures of virus capsids reveal the basis of this genetic economy as a highly symmetrical structure, much like a geodesic dome composed of protein subunits. Crystallographic structures and cryo-electron microscopy reconstructions combined with molecular data are beginning to reveal how these nano-structures are built. Topics covered in the course will include basic principles of virus structure and symmetry, capsid assembly, strategies for enclosing nucleic acid, proteins involved in entry and exit, and the life cycles of well understood pathogens such as HIV, influenza, polio, and Herpes. A review of cutting edge structural methods is also covered.
     

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
This course content is a redistribution of MIT Open Courses. Access to the course materials is free to all users.






© 2010-2021 OpenCollege.com, All Rights Reserved.
Open College is a service mark of AmeriCareers LLC.