Structural Biology and Interactions

This course builds on the Structural Biochemistry course in S5. Students will learn the basic concepts of the different approaches used for multi-scale structural characterization and the analysis of macromolecular interactions. The advantages and limitations of all the tools will be highlighted so that students can understand how they complement each other and know how to use them in an integrated way to answer a given biological question. 

The tutorials will be a mix of structural analysis using visualization tools (such as Pymol) and analysis of articles using a combination of the approaches studied in CM. Students will then be required to conceptualize their own experimental project to address a given problem.

Knowledge:

- Review of structural protein levels, interactions, folding, and structural motifs.

- Determination of the primary structure of proteins by mass spectrometry: bottom-up and top-down proteomics.

- Biophysical techniques for analyzing molecular interactions: basic theoretical concepts and introduction to the different approaches used (fluorescence, thermophoresis, fluorimetry, isothermal titration calorimetry, surface plasmon resonance).

- Low-resolution structural analysis: basic theoretical concepts and introduction to the different approaches used (native mass spectrometry, hydrogen-deuterium exchange, ion mobility, SAXS).

- Determination of the high-resolution structure of macromolecules: basic theoretical concepts and introduction to the different approaches used (crystallography, NMR, electron microscopy).  

Know-how:

- Select an analytical tool or set of tools to address a structural and/or interactional issue.

- Analyze and interpret data relating to the biophysical approaches studied.

- Being able to choose experiments in order to answer specific questions.

Interpersonal skills:

- Have the ability to synthesize information.

- Ability to work in a team.

Structural Biochemistry S5, Enzymology S5, From Molecules to Cells S1, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Cell S2