Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: BIOENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS

Department: Bioengineering

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): BIOE 252 AND MATH 212

Description: This course provides a mathematically rigorous and quantitative coverage of the fundamentals of thermodynamics with applications drawn from contemporary bioengineering problems. Fundamental topics will include the Zeroth, First and Second Law, Entropy Inequality, Gibbs and Helmholtz Free Energies, The Third Law, Maxwell Relations, chemical potential, equilibrium, phase transitions, solution thermodynamics, protein-ligand binding and statistical mechanics. Advanced topics will include transcription factor-DNA binding, nucleic acid hybridization, translation initiation and genetic circuits. The course will cover the role that thermodynamics plays in molecular engineering and synthetic biology.