BMS2021: Biochemistry of Human Function

5 x Moodle quizzes (2% each; 10% total)
After the lectures blocks for topics A-E were complete, a Moodle quiz consisting of 7-12 MCQs (with 1.5 mins per question) about that topic was available for about a week. They were not overly difficult, but required that you stayed up to date with lecture content. There was no quiz for topic F.

Workshop assessment (35%)
Workshop material covered topics A-E, and was closely aligned with the lecture material of the previous weeks. Depending on the lecturer teaching the topic, workshops took on a variety of formats, including case studies, team oral poster presentations, and worksheets. Assessment for the workshops included pre-class Moodle quizzes, team MCQs, individual SAQs, team reports, and team oral presentations. Workshops were held each week, with weeks 2-11 being assessed. Each week's assessment was worth approximately 3% of the total unit grade, although two of the oral presentations stretched over two weeks (one week of preparation, with the presentation held in the second week), in which case they were worth 7% (7*3% + 2*7% = 35% total). Workshop material was not assessed in the exam.

End of semester exam (55%)
The end of semester exam was 3 hours long, and consisted of 40 MCQs (40 marks) and some short answer questions (80 marks) on all lecture material. Hurdle requirement of 45% (on the exam) to pass the unit.

This unit serves as somewhat of a continuation of BMS1011 (Biomedical chemistry) and BMS1062 (Molecular biology). The lecture content was divided into Topics A-F (described briefly below), with each topic covering a different field of biomedical science. Note that the focus of the unit is on the molecular aspects of each topic, with relevance to disease discussed throughout.

• - Topic A: Regulation of metabolism. This is a continutation of the metabolism content of BMS1011. While BMS1011 introduces the different metabolic pathways (glycolysis, the CAC, GNG, lipid metabolism, etc), Topic A covers how these pathways (carbohydrate, lipid, and nitrogen metabolism) are regulated in both starvation and fasting states.
• - Topic B: Cell talk - Communication networks inside and outside the cell. This topic provides an overview of the different types of signalling cells use to communicate to each other, with a specific focus on paracrine signalling. In particular, this topic covered the G-protein coupled receptor, nuclear receptor, ion channel-coupled receptor, and enzyme-linked receptor paracrine signalling pathways. Probably my least favourite topic, as there was a lot of molecular pathway information to learn.
• - Topic C: The autonomic control of energy, exercise and metabolism. This topic was essentially the pharmacology part of the unit, and covered the noradrenergic system of the autonomic nervous system, and how it can be targeted using drugs to control energy metabolism and exercise. Pharmacokinetics (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of drugs) was also discussed. This was probably the most interesting topic for me
• - Topic D: Trafficking, life and death of the cell. As stated in the topic name, Topic C covered the molecular aspects of mitosis; how proteins are trafficked, starting from translation on the ribosome, to their final functional location; and finally how apoptosis is activated.
• - Topic E: Introduction to developmental biology. This topic is taken by Craig Smith, who you may remember from the Developmental biology topic of BMS1021. Many of the aspects covered significantly overlap with the BMS1021 dev bio series (e.g. gastrulation, Hox genes, stem cells) with more of a molecular focus, so a good grounding from BMS1021 may be useful here.
• - Topic F: The molecular basis of cancer. This is probably the first real exposure BMS students will have to cancer in the course. This topic is a relatively light introduction to cancer, and covers the three types of genes (with specific examples) which can be mutated in cancer: oncogenes, tumour suppressor genes, and mismatch repair genes.

Overall, I found the content relatively interesting (although there is a lot to know).

- Prof. Janet Macaulay [unit co-ordinator] - Topic A
- Dr Jessica Gibbons [assistant unit co-ordinator] - Topic B
- Dr Richard Loiacono - Topic C
- Prof. Mike Ryan - Topic D
- A/Prof. Craig Smith - Topic E
- Dr Caroline Speed - Topic F

None. Some practise SAQs (with answers) were provided for each topic on Moodle.

3.5 out of 5. The unit overall was relatively well run and structured, although there were a few hiccups with some of the assessment.

Yes, with screen capture. Livestreaming was also available.

These textbooks were not essential, but may be useful for some of the workshop assessments, or if you would like to do further reading.
Prescribed:

• - Molecular Biology of the Cell (6e) by Alberts et al.
• - Lehninger - Principles of Biochemistry (7e) by Nelson & Cox.

Per week: 1 x 2 hour lecture, 1 x 2 hour workshop

The lecture content was divided into 6 topics (A-F), with a different lecturer taking each topic. Some lectures had associated pre- and post-class activities (which were assessable).

The workshops this year were all held in the 'Learning in the Round' learning space in the new LTB. We were allocated into table groups of 6, with 3 of these groups assigned to a tutor. One of the unit coordinators would facilitate each lesson. There were whiteboards available for each table group to use, and these were often used for brainstorming ideas, and as a visual aid for oral presentations.

Semester 1, 2018.
This unit is only available in Semester 1.

Not yet available

This unit is hard. Really hard. Take any unit or subject you've ever done and laugh at it because they pale in comparison compared to this one. The amount of information that you need to learn, consolidate and understand is immense, and it's pretty independent too so aside from the fact that communication with staff is great, you're quite on your own (so find a group of friends to study with and stick with them).

If I could get a do over, I'd go to every lecture possible; it just not worthwhile cramming this unit because there's so much to know. Try to stay up to date as much as possible with the assessments too; there is quite a bit of online assessment and it's pretty easy to forget to do something.

The semester starts of with Integration and Regulation of Metabolism, which is predominantly glycolysis, gluconeogenesis and other glucoregulatory processes and their regulation; you also cover nitrogen-based concepts like the urea cycle and pyrimidine and purine metabolism. Next you'll cover cell signalling, with things like hormonal control, different types of cell surface and intracellular receptors and the regulatory mechanisms of all of these. Afterwards, you'll study regulation of the cell cycle and the CDK-cyclin regulation of it. You'll also look at the 'checkpoints' of the cycle and why they are important in preventing tumourigenesis due to mutations in proto-oncogenes and in tumour-suppressor genes. You'll also look at apoptosis in great detail, examining many of the various pathways that cells can trigger apoptosis. As well as this, you'll examine necrosis and oncosis and how they differ. Finally, you'll deal with neurochemistry and other neurobiochemical areas of study. In all of these modules, you'll be learning about the clinical significance and applications of these areas of study.

In-semester assessment consists entirely of A) your tutes and B) online quizzes. Tutes are quite fun, especially the weeks where you do clinical case studies. Other weeks are group oral presentation-based, and these are pretty fun, not a lot of work to do for them in all honesty. You do spend one tute session doing a paper chromatography lab involving amino acid <-> alpha-ketoglutarate transamination; you'll then have to write up a detailed lab report based on your results. Some weeks your tute grades were split 66% in-tute work and 33% for an online quiz.

The other component of in-semester assessment are 6 online quizzes after each module of the unit. These, frankly, were ridiculously structured and hopefully (given the SETU surveys that people filed) they should be changed for next year. Basically, they were 8-12 MCQs, with 1 minute per question; only problem is the question and responses were very detailed and it generally took more than a minute to read everything. This was made worse by the fact that some of the questions were drop-down boxes or multi-option MCQs, which too even longer to get done. All in all, this part of the assessment was very poorly thought out by the faculty, and it really caused a great deal of stress among most students.
The exam is

Nope!

2.5 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture.

If you don't already have a copy of Molecular Biology of the Cell and Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry, now's as good a time as any to get one. You don't strictly need either but this is a hard unit and they're good resources to have on hand.

Semester 1, 2014