Experimental biophysics
Experimentell biofysik

FFFN20F, 15 högskolepoäng

Gäller från och med: Spring 2020
Beslutad av: Anders Gustafsson / FUN (2)
Datum för fastställande: 2019-11-14

Allmänna uppgifter

Avdelning: Solid State Physics
Kurstyp: Gemensam kurs, avancerad nivå och forskarnivå
Kursen ges även på avancerad nivå med kurskoder: FFFN20, FYST23
Undervisningsspråk: English

Syfte

The course provides a deeper study of interdisciplinary work focused on experimental methods in biophysics. The course is intended specifically to provide an introduction to the intersection of modern physics, nanotechnology, biomolecular chemistry and biology.

Mål

Kunskap och förståelse

För godkänd kurs skall doktoranden

• be able to discuss the connection between orders of magnitude in biology and microelectronic components and how this can be used to an advantage to develop new tools for biomedical analysis.
• be able to explain fundamental issues and problems in micro- and nanofluidics.
• be able to describe advanced imaging methods.
• be able to explain fundamental techniques of studies of single molecules.
• be able to explain fundamental mechanisms within the field of molecular motors.
• be able to describe the interaction of cells with nanostructured particles including nanotoxicity.
• be able to describe systems such as lab on a chip, integration.

Färdighet och förmåga

För godkänd kurs skall doktoranden

• be able to seek information outside the course literature.
• be able to understand and summarize scientific articles.
• be able to develop simple experiments, i.e. assess and choose appropriate experimental techniques for a specific scientific question.
• be able to plan a scientific project.
• be able to write well-structured project reports that summarize, explains and analyzes experimental and/or theoretical work.
• be able to present results of independent work in an oral presentation and actively take part in scientific discussions.

Värderingsförmåga och förhållningssätt

För godkänd kurs skall doktoranden understand limitations and possibilities of miniaturization of bioanalytical tools.

Kursinnehåll

The course contains three main parts. The first part of the course consists of lectures and seminars. During this time fundamental issues within the relevant subjects are presented and discussed. It is important that the students take active part in the discussion, especially during the seminars. An important goal is to learn how to extract information efficiently from scientific articles. A common theme throughout the course is micro and nanostructures within biology and technology and how they connect to each other. Orders of magnitude in biology and physics. Imaging of biological structures: optical microscopy including super resolution microscopy (STE, SORM mfl). Micro and nanofluidics: separation and analysis of molecules and cells, soft lithography. Interaction of proteins and cells with nanostructured surfaces: control of motor proteins, growth of axons, antibody-antigen reactions for protein-chip applications. Interaction of low-dimensional materials with individual cells. Systems issues: Lab on a chip applications, single-cell studies. The second part of the course consists of laborative exercises, primarily in our research laboratories. The students are given an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the equipment that is used at the department for biophysics. Fundamental fluorescence microscopy Soft lithography and microfluidics Applications of microfluidics Flow simulation Optical tweezers The last part of the course is a project where the students work individually or in small groups on primarily innovative, yet simple, experiments in a research environment at a location of their choice at the university or outside the university. The projects are defined together with the course coordinator, the project advisors and the students.

Kurslitteratur

The course does not rely on any course text book. Instead it uses recent and relevant scientific papers from the literature, some of which are review papers. Laboratory guides and question sets are available online. In addition many project reports are available as pdf files on the course website.

Kursens undervisningsformer

Undervisningsformer: Föreläsningar, seminarier, laborationer, projekt

Kursens examination

Examinationsformer: Skriftlig tentamen, muntlig tentamen, skriftlig rapport
Betygsskala: Underkänd, godkänd
Examinator:

Antagningsuppgifter

Förutsatta förkunskaper: Compulsory courses of the first three years of the Engineering Nanoscience programme or equivalent.

Kurstillfällesinformation

Kontaktinformation och övrigt

Kursansvariga:
Hemsida: https://biokurs.ftf.lth.se/