Biochemistry and Nutrition

Experience your own metabolism! You eat, drink, exercise and sleep. Without noticing, your body adapts to these situations changing your metabolism and adapting to different energy requirements. In this course we cover the metabolism of the major nutrients, carbohydrates, fats and amino acids. The lectures discuss the metabolism of these nutrients for the generation of energy and the generation of building blocks. Finally an integrated view of metabolism is discussed in particular with respect to the feeding-fasting cycle. Embedded are lectures that introduce principles of protein structure, enzyme function and regulation, and principles of energy metabolism. In the practical course you will experience how we detect and analyse nutrients and their metabolism. The workshop topic is “ Plant metabolic engineering and breeding for human health”. Students will participate in two learning workshops and will be required to prepare a literature review or prepare a journal club presentation on the topic of "plant metabolic engineering and breeding for human health". Note: Graduate students attend joint classes with undergraduates but will be assessed separately.