CM4227 - CHEMICAL BIOLOGY

Academic Year 23/24 - Semester 1

 

Assessments:

• Attendance: 5%

• Lecture Participation: 10%

• Tutorial (discussion; as audience): 10%

• Tutorial (mini-presentation; as presenter): 25%

• Mid-term test: 15%

• Individual project (original research proposal): 35%

Lecturer: Prof Yao Shao Qin

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Course Overview:

• Relatively extensive overview of how chemistry is used to investigate and answer problems in biology (e.g. the unique chemistry of certain modified nucleic acids found in our bodies which can be exploited and be sequenced correctly instead of being mistaken for a regular nucleic acid during DNA sequencing)

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Difficulty of the course: Difficult

Pace of the course: Too Fast

Duration provided to prepare for tutorials: >7 Days

 

Workload of Course (Average number of actual hours spent per week)

To learn the content: 4 hours

To complete assignments: 4 hours

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REVIEW

What advice would you give to someone considering to take this course?

 

Anonymous: Be very prepared to ask or answer at least one question every lecture and tutorial, and there is typically 2 lectures and 1 tutorial per week. There are also 1-2 readings (research articles/reviews) every 2 weeks or so, not including the readings you have to do for tutorials, which are around 1-2 readings per tutorial as well. These readings are typically 6-15 pages in length each, so students have to be prepared to read a lot. And lastly, given the way the course is conducted and its assessments it is important to be thick skinned.

 

What did you enjoy or find most useful from this course?

 

Anonymous: The concepts, content and techniques taught seem to be relevant to industrial or research applications, and in general the content of the course was simply very interesting.

 

What aspects of the course did you find most challenging, and why?

 

Anonymous: The lectures are usually around 100 minutes (so they are intellectually and mentally tiring), and the lecturer does not stop during the break. There is a huge amount of content to know about, and you are expected to retain the knowledge until the very end, because even in the later lectures, students can and will be asked about concepts/ideas/knowledge taught in the earlier lectures.

 

What other courses do you think should be taken before or concurrently with this course?

 

Anonymous: Life Science courses like LSM2105 Molecular Genetics, LSM2106 Biochemistry, and LSM2233 Cell Biology will definitely help you get used to the extensive use of biology terms and concepts, and should probably be taken before taking CM4227. CM3225 Biomolecules helps slightly, but the focus of this course is as much on the biology aspect as it is on the chemistry aspect, and as such more biology/life science focused courses are more helpful to take to understand this course.