Course syllabus
Course-PM
BBT055 BBT055 Bioanalytical chemistry lp3 VT24 (7.5 hp)
This course is offered by the department of Life Sciences
Contact details
Examiner: Dr Carl Brunius (carl.brunius@chalmers.se)
For additional contact details, please see the course PM at the Home page.
Course purpose
This introductory course aims to provide a fundamental understanding of theoretical and practical aspects of the analysis of biomolecules and bio-relevant molecules. This includes various modern instrumental techniques, sampling protocols, sample pre-treatment, and data processing used in modern bioanalysis.
The overall course goal is to help students think critically and make informed choices between analytical techniques, methods and instruments in order to address bioanalytical tasks, including how to analyze and interpret data.
The course will teach the principles of quality control and assurance and enable students to apply their knowledge to practical solutions of real analytical problems. The course also involves current analytical literature to enable students to review, select, read and critically discuss resources most relevant to a particular topic. The students will further develop practical skills in laboratory experiments, and techniques for communicating science, including the writing of laboratory reports.
Schedule
Course literature
1a. Daniel Harris: Quantitative Chemical Analysis, 6th ed or later. In addition to hard copy, this book can also be found e.g. in the internet archive open-source section.
1b An alternative, free e-book: D. Harvey: Analytical Chemistry 2.1. This book can easily be found at several locations, but please note that Mass Spectrometry is not covered.
2 S.R. Mikkelsen & E. Corton: Bioanalytical Chemistry 2nd. Ed or later.
For additional details (e.g. suggested reading), please see the course PM at the Home page.
Course design
The course contains lectures, 3 laboratory exercises and seminars/journal club.
For additional details, please see the course PM at the Home page.
Changes made since the last occasion
Student feedback from the last years have been carefully gone through for general trends. In response, changes have focused on:
- Decreasing the number of lecturers for a combination of less overlap between lectures and improved knowledge progression
- Smaller lab groups for improved learning
- Reducing passive time (i.e. waiting) in labs
- Improving instructions for the journal club seminars
- Partly shifted focus in Quality Control (more on QC samples, less on e.g. outlier detection)
Learning objectives and syllabus
Learning objectives:
- apply their basic knowledge in biochemistry and analytical chemistry to quickly learn and manage important techniques in bioanalytical chemistry
- describe the analytical process with special regard to life-science-relevant samples
- describe sample preparation and preservation
- describe the various bioanalytical instrumental techniques
- describe analytical applications of biomolecules, such as enzymes and antibodies
- describe the choice of instrumentation techniques for bioanalytical problems
- use the most common instruments in chemical and biochemical analysis and the procedure used to solve problems in analysis.
- generate and evaluate measurement data in analytical experiments
- describe the validation of analytical methods
- understand and evaluate ethical principles and problems within the framework of analytical sciences
Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen: Study plan
Examination form
- Written examination: According to Tentamen schedule.
- 3 half day laboratory experiments and submission of all lab reports within one week after the experiment. One report per group is sufficient, but individual reports are also accepted.
- Seminars/Journal club: Active participation in all Journal Club work.