301234 VO Advanced Biochemical and Biophysical Methods (2022S)

The course provides a comprehensive overview of strategies and methods for protein expression and purification and highlights the utility of different methods of protein characterization for understanding its structure and function. Course graduates are expected to understand and be able to explain theoretical background and instrumentation used for protein characterization to the extent sufficient for critical interpretation of original research results and be able to choose an adequate method for a specific research question. Specifically, the course includes lectures on the fundamentals of recombinant protein expression, purification, biophysical characterization and quality assessment, static and dynamic light scattering, X-ray crystallography, absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy techniques (CD, FRET, FLIM, FC(C)S, fluorescence anisotropy, etc), mass spectroscopy and imaging methods (light and electron microscopy). The course is a lecture series (Ringvorlesung) with elements of flipped class. The students are expected to watch the recorded lectures (available on Moodle) PRIOR to the synchronous online units discussing a paper illustrating specific method (the papers are chosen by the lecturers and made available via Moodle). Additional online consultation hours may be offered upon demand and in agreement with the lecturers.