Chemistry

• CAS CH 524: Chemical Biology Laboratory
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASBI421 OR CASCH421) or consent of instructor. - Project-based laboratory course to introduce students to the design and implementation of modern experimental techniques in chemical biology, including protein-peptide and protein small molecule interactions, fluorescent binding assays, enzyme activity and inhibition kinetics. Eight hours of lab weekly in addition to a pre-lab lecture. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Teamwork/Collaboration, Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• CAS CH 541: Natural Products Chemistry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASCH212 or CAS CH 214; or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Chemical and biosynthetic pathways leading to important natural products derived from fatty acids, terpenes, amino acids, polyketides, shikimic acid, and other biosynthetic intermediates. Three hours lecture, one-hour discussion.
• CAS CH 550: Materials Chemistry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS CH 112 (or CH 110 or CH 102/201) and CAS CH 212 (or CH 214) and CA S PY 212; or consent of instructor. - Structure, synthesis, properties of hard and soft materials (alternate years) are covered.
• CAS CH 621: Biochemistry I
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH204 OR CASCH212 OR CASCH214) or equivalent. Introductory biochemistry. Protein structure and folding, enzyme mechanisms, kinetics, and allostery; nucleic acid structure; macromolecular biosynthesis with emphasis on specificity and fidelity; lipids and membrane structure; vitamins and coenzymes; introduction to intermediary metabolism. Three hours lecture, one hour discussion, four hours lab. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Critical Thinking, Teamwork/Collaboration.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Quantitative Reasoning II
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• CAS CH 622: Biochemistry 2
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120), (CASBI421 OR CASCH421) or equivalent. - Cell metabolism, with special emphasis on the uptake of food materials, the integration and regulation of catabolic, anabolic, and anaplerotic routes, and the generation and utilization of energy. Lectures include consideration of events in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Three hours lecture, one hour discussion, four hours lab. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Research and Information Literacy, Teamwork/Collaboration, Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS CH 623: Chemical Biology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH621) (GRSCH622 recommended), or consent of instructor. - Research at the chemistry-biology interface, including directed evolution, unnatural amino acid mutagenesis, chemical genetics, proteomics, and fluorescent reporters of enzyme function. Reading, discussing and evaluating the current chemical biology literature is a significant component of the course.
• CAS CH 624: Macromolecular Structure Determination
  Graduate Prerequisites: CH/BI 421; or equivalent, or consent of instructor - This course covers the determination of structures of biological macromolecules including RNA, DNA, and proteins. Topics include macromolecular assemblies and symmetry, crystal forms, diffraction, phase determination, data acquisition, model building and refinement, model analysis and homology modeling.
• CAS CH 625: Enzymology: Mechanisms of Enzymatic Reactions
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH421) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Covers enzyme structure-function relationships. A tool-box of methods is presented, including kinetics (steady state and pre-steady state methods), isotope effects, stereo-chemical methods, site-directed mutagenesis, methods to replace natural with unnatural amino acids, mechanism based inhibitors.
• CAS CH 627: RNA Structure and Function
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH421) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Chemical and structural biology of natural RNA molecules, including ribosomal RNA, catalytic RNA (ribozymes), siRNA (small interfering RNA), microRNA, long non-coding RNA, riboswitches, and CRISPR.
• CAS CH 628: Protein Chemistry
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH621) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - The structure and function of selected enzymes, motor/pump proteins, and structural protein assemblies, highlighting concepts in macromolecular structure analysis, including linking structure and dynamics to catalysis. Analysis of selected primary literature underscoring structural underpinnings via molecular graphics.
• CAS CH 631: Advanced Coordination Chemistry I: Structure and Bonding
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH232) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - The interdependence of chemical bonding, spectroscopic characteristics, and reactivity properties of coordination compounds and complexes are described and formalized using the fundamental concept of symmetry, as applied to inorganic coordination complexes.
• CAS CH 632: Advanced Coordination Chemistry II: Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH232 & CASCH214) or consent of instructor. - The mechanistic study of ligand substitution and electron transfer processes in coordination compounds are discussed in the context of basic molecular orbital theory. The connections between small molecule inorganic and biological macromolecular metal-catalyzed processes are presented.
• CAS CH 633: Physical Methods for Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: ( (CASCH232 & CASCH352) OR GRSCH631) or equivalents, or consent of instructor. - A discussion of the physical techniques for the study of structural, magnetic, and redox-active properties of transitional metal complexes. Techniques discussed include x-ray crystallography; x-ray absorption; vibrational, NMR, EPR, and Mossbauer spectroscopies; and electrochemistry.
• CAS CH 634: Metallobiochemistry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH232 & CASCH421) or equivalents, or consent of instructor. - The roles of transition metals in biology are assessed by review of the structural, spectroscopic, and genetic aspects of metallobiochemistry. Metal import and trafficking; cofactor biogenesis; biocatalytic transformations in biochemistry; reactive oxygen species; the inorganic basis of life.
• CAS CH 635: Synthetic Methodology in Inorganic Chemistry
  Graduate Prerequisites: (CASCH232) or equivalent. - The descriptive chemistries of the metallic elements are surveyed to develop a broad knowledge of these elements and how to prepare their compounds and understand the resultant reactivities. Case studies are taken from older and recent literature sources.
• CAS CH 636: Organometallic Catalysis
  This course provides a survey of pertinent topics in catalysis, focusing on organometallic complexes as the catalyst along with their kinetic and mechanistic analysis. The course covers catalytic reactions spanning those of major industrial importance to novel academic interest.
• CAS CH 641: Physical Organic Chemistry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH352) or equivalent or consent of instructor. - Physical fundamentals of organic chemistry. Thermodynamics, kinetics, molecular orbital theory, and theory of concerted reactions. Isotope effects, aromaticity, linear free energy relationships, acidity functions, photo- and free-radical chemistry.
• CAS CH 642: Organic Reaction Mechanisms
  Graduate Prerequisites: (CASCH212 & CASCH301) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Fundamentals of organic reaction mechanisms related to acid/base catalysis, reactions of the carbonyl group, cycloadditions, nucleophilic displacement reactions, and redox chemistry.
• CAS CH 643: Synthetic Methods of Organic Chemistry
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH642) - Organic synthesis strategies for total synthesis of complex natural products. Various approaches for organic molecules whose synthesis constitutes major contributions to organic chemistry.
• CAS CH 645: Transition Metal Chemistry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing and CAS CH 203/204 (or CH 203/214 or CH 211/212) and C H 232; recommended corequisite: CH 301. - Introduction to the concepts of transition metal-mediated reactions and mechanisms, including electronic structure and properties, reaction mechanisms, kinetics, organometallic compounds, catalytic reactions, and aspects of asymmetric catalysis.