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Biochemistry Specialization Plan

The Biochemistry Specialization Plan is intended for those students who wish to be able to apply computational methodology to problems of a biochemical nature. This plan has ten specialization core courses, seven specialization elective courses, and four free elective courses. The ten specialization core courses provide students following this specialization plan with a thorough coverage of those aspects of biochemistry, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry needed to work on computational biochemical problems.

The seven specialization core courses are split into two sets of courses, one group of three elective courses intended to allow a student to build up a slightly deeper working knowledge of analytical, inorganic, or organic chemistry, the other group of four elective courses intended to allow a student to obtain additional expertise in areas of specific interest or to broaden her/his background in biochemistry. The first group of specialization elective courses, which we will refer to herein as Group A electives, have been chosen so that a student in this specialization can aquire a more complete knowledge of analytical or inorganic chemistry than is obtainable within the set of specialization core courses, and/or increase her/his coverage of synthetic organic chemistry, while the second group of specialization courses, referred to herein as Group B electives, have been chosen so that a student can broaden her/his knowledge in biochemical areas of specific interest.

The specialization core courses have been grouped into four sets of courses, with four courses covering topics in the area of physical chemistry, three courses covering computational chemistry, two  courses covering introductory biochemistry, and two courses covering introductory synthetic organic chemistry. The specialization elective courses, which come in two groups, are arranged in columns corresponding in the Group A set to analytical chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and organic chemistry, respectively, and in the Group B set to physical chemistry, computational chemistry, biochemistry, and biology, respectively.

Biochemistry Specialization Core Courses

CHEM 140L Introductory Scientific Calculations Laboratory
CHEM 209 Introductory Spectroscopy and Structure
CHEM 233 Fundamentals of Biochemistry
CHEM 254 Introductory Chemical Thermodynamics
CHEM 264 Organic Chemistry 1
CHEM 265 Organic Chemistry 2
CHEM 331 Metabolism 1
CHEM 340L Introductory Computational Chemistry Laboratory
CHEM 350 Chemical Kinetics
CHEM 356 Introductory Quantum Mechanics
CHEM 450 Computational Physical Chemistry* or
CHEM 460 Molecular Modelling*

Biochemistry Specialization Elective Courses
Group A courses (three to be chosen)

CHEM 212 Structure and Bonding
CHEM 220 Introductory Analytical Chemistry
CHEM 221 Multi-Component Analysis
CHEM 310 Transition Element Compounds and Inorganic Materials
CHEM 313 Main Group and Solid State Chemistry
CHEM 360 Organic Chemistry 3

Group B courses (four to be chosen)

CHEM 323 Analytical Instrumentation
CHEM 430 Bioinorganic Chemistry
CHEM 430 Biochemistry and Structure of Molecules
CHEM 430 Molecular Properties of Proteins and Nucleic Acids
CHEM 430 Proteins and Proteonomics
CHEM 430 Advanced Molecular Modeling in Biochemistry
CHEM 430 Advanced Computational Methods for Biochemistry
CHEM 433 Advanced Biochemistry
CHEM 460 Molecular Modelling* or
CHEM 450 Topics in Computational Chemistry*
CHEM 450 Statistical Mechanics
BIOL 139 Genetics
BIOL 208 Analytical Methods in Molecular Biology
BIOL 366 Introduction to Bioinformatics
BIOL 382 Computer Modelling of Cellular Systems

*Either CHEM 450 Computational Physical Chemistry or CHEM 460 Molecular Modelling may be used as a Specialization Elective course if it has not already been selected as a Specialization Core course.

Notice that CHEM 450/452 appears twice and CHEM 430/434 appears six times in the Group B listing: this happens because these particular course numbers indicate that the courses are `Special Topics' courses that must ultimately be identified in terms of both the course number and the course title. Thus, two courses with the same course number but with different course titles represent two distinct courses and, as such, both courses may be taken for credit; note also that these courses are not antirequisites to one another.

Other courses labelled CHEM 450/452 or CHEM 430/434 may also be chosen as electives in Group B, but only upon approval by the Computational Sciences Program Advisor.

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