1- INTRODUCTION TO BIOCHEMISTRY

2- BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES:
2.1- PROTEINS: Amino Acids, chirality, zwitterions. Peptide bond and Proteins. Primary, secondary structure, tertiary and quaternary structure. Sequence and conformation.
2.2- PROTEIN FUNCTIONS.
2.3- NUCLOTIDES AND NUCLEIC ACID: Nucleotides chemical structure, DNA and RNA.
2.4- ENZYMES AND ENZYMOLOGY: Catalysis and specificity. Activation energy. Enzyme-substrate relations, active site. Model of Michaelis-Menten. Reactions with multiple substrates. Inhibition of enzymes. Catalytic strategies. Regulatory enzymes. Vitamins.
2.5- CARBOHYDRATES: Monosaccharides. chirality. Hemiacetals and emiketals. Disaccharides: O-glycosidic bond. Polysaccharides: starch, glycogen, cellulose, peptidoglycan, glycosaminoglycans. Glycoconjugates: glycoproteins, N-glycosylation, glycolipids, lectins.
2.6- LIPIDS: Unsaturated and saturated fatty acids. Reserve lipids. Structural membrane lipids; sterols.

3 - METABOLISM: catabolism and anabolism. Structure and function of ATP. Redox reactions. NAD+, NADP+, FMN,FAD.
3.1 GLYCOLYSIS: The 10 reactions of the glycolysis. Lactic fermentation. Alcoholic fermentation. Thiamine pyrophosphate. Supply routes of glycolysis. Regulation of the pathway.
3.2 PENTOSE PHOSPHATE PATHWAY: description of the reactions.
3.3 CITRIC ACID CYCLE: Cellular respiration. Production of acetyl-CoA, pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. Reactions and enzymes of the cycle. Anaplerotic reactions. Cycle regulation.
3.4 -OXIDATION OF FATTY ACIDS: -oxidation of saturated and equivalent fatty acids, -oxidation of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and odd fatty acids. Regulation of -oxidation. Ketone bodies.
3.5 OXIDATION OF AMINO ACIDS and UREA CYCLE: Aminotransferases. Formation and transport of ammonia. Urea cycle, description of the reactions and enzymes. Regulation of the urea cycle. Brief on the catabolism of -keto acids.
3.6 OXIDATIVE PHOSPHORYLATION: Electron flow. Respiratory chain: ubiquinone, cytochromes and Fe-S proteins. The four respiratory chain complexes. Proton-motive force. ATP synthesis, chemiosmotic model. ATP synthase, rotational catalysis. Regulation of oxidative phosphorylation.
3.7 GLUCONEOGENESIS: general concepts of anabolism. Reactions of the Gluconeogenesis pathway. Regulation of the gluconeogenesis.
3.8 FATTY ACID BIOSYNTHESIS: formation of malonyl-CoA, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthase. Regulation of the pathway. Formation of various fatty acids.

4- BIOCHEMICAL METHODOLOGIES:
4.1 PREPARATIVE TECHNIQUES: Homogenization and lysis; cell fractionation; protein extraction and purification.
4.2 SEPARATION TECHNIQUES: Differential and density gradient centrifugation and ultracentrifugation. Chromatography: partition, reverse phase, adsorption, ion exchange, molecular exclusion, affinity. Electrophoresis: SDS-PAGE and IEF.

LABORATORY PRACTICE: buffer preparation; ion-exchange and gel-filtration chromatography; SDS-PAGE.