Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/University of Toronto/CHM437S Bioinorganic Chemistry (Winter 2015)/Course description

Course Overview
CHM437S is a lecture-based course that will explore the fundamental principles of bioinorganic chemistry and examine how they are applied in specific examples from our world. We will touch on many of the inorganic elements that are used in biology, but our focus is on the transition metals. Topics covered include the occurrence, distribution, and roles of the essential inorganic elements in nature; the structure and function of naturally occurring ligands; physical methods used to study bioinorganic biomolecules; uptake, regulation, and insertion into metalloproteins; and the discussion of examples including both redox and non-redox metalloenzymes, electron transfer proteins and energy-coupled processes, metallodrugs, etc.


 * Course goals

By the end of the semester, students should be able to:
 * 1)  Recognize how the fundamental principles of inorganic chemistry apply to bioinorganic systems.
 * 2)  Appreciate the challenges of using metals in biological systems and discuss how Nature meets these challenges in general and by citing specific examples.
 * 3)  Understand how specialized methods are used to study bioinorganic molecules and what kind of information they provide.
 * 4)  Discuss the chemistry and biology of specific bioinorganic systems.


 * The wiki assignment

Metals are everywhere in biology. It has been estimated that roughly a third of all proteins require at least one metal cofactor, and metals are also used as structural components, in signalling pathways, in the immune system, as clinically administered drugs, and so on. In addition, the field of bioinorganic is very broad and multidisciplinary, drawing in scientists from diverse areas such as inorganic synthesis, biological chemistry, microbiology and geology. So it is impossible for one course to cover all of the topics in this area! For this reason, this course has included a student-driven research project since it was first offered by Prof. Morris. Typically, each student picks a specific bioinorganic molecule and does an in-depth study to learn what is known about this molecule. The student then prepares a presentation to teach what they have learned to the rest of the class. This part of the assignment is still in place because the oral presentation is a valuable experience in communication, allows you to perform a detailed analysis of one aspect of interest on a bioinorganic system, and provides the opportunity for interesting questions and discussions with the class.

Over the past few years, Wikipedia has become more common as a reference, often showing up as the first item upon searching the internet. Initially, I would tell the class that Wikipedia is not an appropriate reference, but this statement is not true anymore. There is a wealth of information here, and much of it is peer-reviewed. Furthermore, it has become a valuable source of information for who knows how many people. However, much of the scientific information is incomplete, and the peer reviewers may not be scientists. This is where we can contribute. You do all of the work to put together a narrative about a bioinorganic system, and usually the presentations are at an impressive level of understanding and depth. Also, although there are some good Wikipedia articles on some bioinorganic systems, many are not represented. So this year, part of your assignment will be to prepare a Wikipedia article. I will prepare a list of interesting biomolecules for which there is nothing (or very little) on Wikipedia for you to chose from. There are many examples of pages that are present but incomplete, so if there is a topic that you are particularly interested in learning about but it is not on my list, please come to talk to me with your proposal.

This assignment will be fun but not easy, especially if you are new to working on Wikipedia. It is a different style of scientific communication from what we are used to. It is a real online encyclopedia, so there are rules that we have to follow such as how to write the article and the format you must use, ensuring there are appropriate citations, keeping the content and tone appropriate for the general audience, as well as other issues. In addition, once you go live you and your work will become a part of the global online community.

Finally, I should thank my colleague user:Medmyco at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health for help with getting this started.

Grading Scheme
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