Unit 5B - Biochemistry Special Study

This is a guide to enable you to study the Biochemistry topic by yourself. All the page numbers refer to the Nuffield booklet BIOCHEMISTRY, A Special Study (Addison Wesley Longman, 3rd Edition 1998).

As well as reading and learning the content of the study, you are expected to do all the activities (review tasks, study tasks etc). Although you will not be able to do the experiments, you must learn all the details thoroughly, both methods and results.

Deadlines for work to be given in (study tasks, review tasks and past paper questions) will appear on the schedule that follows, as soon as you have been given the booklet. Although there is a considerable amount of material to study, you will cope with it much more easily if you follow this schedule and deadlines.

You will be pleased to know that the majority of topics (marked with a *) should already be familiar to 'A' level biologists.

Discuss the work with your teacher if any of this study is difficult to understand.

Week 1

Topic No.	Topic	Page	SubTopic Number	SubTopic	Work Deadline
1	Introducing Biochemistry	4	1.1	Biochemistry
		4	1.2	Experimental work in Biochemistry
		4	1.3	Biochemistry and Medicine
		5	1.4	Molecular Biology
		5	Review 1.4	Review of related main course topics
2	Enzymes	6	2.1	The Structure of cells*
		7	2.2	Enzymes: proteins as catalysts*
		9	2.3	Factors that affect enzyme activity*
		10	Study 2.3	Lysozyme
		11	Study 2.3	Urease
		11	Study 2.3	Cofactors

Week 2

Topic No.	Topic	Page	SubTopic Number	SubTopic	Work Deadline
2	Enzymes continued	12	2.4	Investigating enzymes in action*
		12	Expt 2.4a	The effect of pH on enzyme activity
		13	Expt 2.4b	How does the rate of an enzyme-catalysed reaction vary with the concentration of the substrate?
		14	2.5	Immobilised enzymes in industry
		15	Expt 2.5	Making whey syrup using an immobilised enzyme
		15	Review 2.5	Review of Enzymes Section
		42	Question A5	Enzymes
		42	Question A6	Enzymes
		42	Question A7	Enzymes
		42	Question B1	Enzymes
3	Metabolism	16	3.1	The oxidation of food*
		17	Review 3.1	Main course organic chemistry
		18	3.2	Energy and the role of ATP*

Week 3

Topic No.	Topic	Page	SubTopic Number	SubTopic	Work Deadline
3	Metabolism continued	19	3.3	Metabolic pathways and metabolic control*
		21	Study 3.3	Haem synthesis
		23	3.4	Applications of metabolic control in agriculture and medicine*
		23	Review 3.4	Review of Metabolism Section
		42	Question B2	Enzymes
		41	Question A2	Metabolism
		41	Question A4	Metabolism
4	Nucleic Acids	24	4.1	DNA, the information molecule*

Week 4

Topic No.	Topic	Page	SubTopic Number	SubTopic	Work Deadline
4	Nucleic Acids continued	27	4.2	The replication of DNA*
		28	Study 4.2	Replication
		29	4.3	The synthesis of proteins*
		30	Study 4.3	The Genetic Code
		32	4.4	Mutations*
		32	Study 4.4	The sickle cell mutation
		33	4.5	DNA fingerprinting
		33	4.6	Extraction of DNA from a plant
		34	Review 4.6	Review of Nucleic Acids Section
		43	Question B3	Enzymes

Week 5

Topic No.	Topic	Page	SubTopic Number	SubTopic	Work Deadline
4	Nucleic Acids continued	41	Question A1	Nucleic Acids
		41	Question A3	Nucleic Acids
5	Opportunities & Challenges	35	5.1	Micro-organisms
		36	5.2	Plant breeding
		37	5.3	Animal breeding
		37	5.4	Screening for genetic disorders
		38	5.5	Why do biochemists want to produce transgenic plants and animals?
		38	Review 5.5	Applications of Biochemistry
		43	Question C3	Enzymes
		43	Question C1	Opportunities & Challenges
		43	Question C2	Opportunities & Challenges
		43	Question C4	Opportunities & Challenges