This course examines the chemical and physical properties of the cell and its building blocks, with special emphasis on the structures of proteins and principles of catalysis, as well as the chemistry of organic / inorganic cofactors required for chemical transformations within the cell. Topics encompass the basic principles of metabolism and regulation in pathways, including glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, fatty acid synthesis / degradation, pentose phosphate pathway, Krebs cycle and oxidative phosphorylation.

Course Format
This OCW Scholar course, designed for independent study, is closely modeled on the course taught on the MIT campus. The on-campus course has two types of class sessions: Lectures and recitations. The lectures meet three times each week and recitations meet once a week. In recitations, an instructor or Teaching Assistant elaborates on concepts presented in lecture, working through new examples with student participation, and answers questions.
MIT students who take the corresponding residential class typically report an average of 10–15 hours spent each week, including lectures, recitations, readings, homework, and exams. All students are encouraged to supplement the textbooks and readings with their own research.
The Scholar course has three major learning units, called Modules. Each module has been divided into a sequence of lecture sessions that include:

Textbook Readings
Lecture Notes or Storyboards
A video by Professor JoAnne Stubbe or Professor John Essigmann
Problem Sets and solutions

To help guide your learning, each of these problem sets are accompanied by Problem Solving Videos where Dr. Bogdan Fedeles solves one of the problems from the set.

Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

This 5-minute video lecture looks at oxidative phosphorylation and chemiosmosis (along with slight correction of previous video). [Biology playlist: Lesson 27 of 71].

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Discuss the importance of electrons in the transfer of energy in living systemsExplain how ATP is used by the cell as an energy source

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Discuss the importance of electrons in the transfer of energy in living systemsExplain how ATP is used by the cell as an energy source

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe how electrons move through the electron transport chain and what happens to their energy levelsExplain how a proton (H+) gradient is established and maintained by the electron transport chain

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe how electrons move through the electron transport chain and what happens to their energy levelsExplain how a proton (H+) gradient is established and maintained by the electron transport chain

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Metabolic regulation is vital to maintaining energy balance throughout the body, and different cell types have different ways of maintaining this balance. CAMKK2 is an enzyme common to various cells that aids in breaking down glucose through cellular respiration, but the details of how CAMKK2 carries out that role in different cells remains unclear. To find out, researchers deleted the gene for CAMKK2 from human kidney and liver-derived cells. Deleting CAMKK2 significantly reduced cellular respiration in both cell types versus parental cells. However, isolated mitochondrial respiration increased in kidney cells but decreased in liver cells. Proteomic analysis traced this difference to translational and transcriptional changes in succinate dehydrogenase (SDH). SDH is the only enzyme complex that participates in both the Krebs cycle and electron transport chain. Removing or overexpressing SDH subunit B in CAMKK2-deleted cells confirmed the functional link between SDH and CAMKK2..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"In Wolfram syndrome (WFS), intracellular endoplasmic reticulum stress and reduced levels of the protein wolframin lead to diabetes and neurodegeneration. In addition, deficiency of the wolframin-encoding gene, WFS1, is known to disrupt calcium balance and change mitochondrial dynamics. Unfortunately, there is no effective treatment for WFS, but better characterization of its mechanisms might aid in therapy development. To further investigate WFS, a recent study analyzed the mRNA transcript and protein profiles in a human cell WFS model. The levels of proteins in various signaling pathways differed between the WFS cells and normal control cells. For example, proteins involved in oxidative phosphorylation, the major energy-producing pathway in mitochondria, were downregulated in the WFS cells. while proteins in other energy generation pathways were upregulated..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Metabolic syndrome is becoming increasingly common among humans and domestic animals and is thought to be linked to dysfunction in adipose tissue components, including adipose progenitor stem cells (ASCs). The proteins PTP1B and LMPTP have been implicated in the development of metabolic disorders, but their roles in adipogenic differentiation of ASCs and modulation of mitochondrial dynamics in these cells remain unclear. To clarify this issue, a recent study treated ASCs from metabolically impaired horses with PTP1B and LMPTP inhibitors in vitro. Both selective inhibitors enhanced the differentiation of ASCs into adipose cells and increased the expression of PPARγ, a master adipogenesis regulator, while the LMPTP inhibitor increased the expression of adiponectin, which helps protect against metabolic disorders. The compounds also improved antioxidant defense and altered mitochondrial bioenergetics..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.