Chemistry Course Descriptions

• MED 10200
  Principles of General Chemistry
  Spring, 1st Year/5 credits
  4 lecture, 1 recitation and 3 laboratory hours per week
  Prerequisites: Highschool algebra, geometry, trigonometry and chemistry;
  physics recommended.
  Duration: 15 weeks of lecture and recitation, 7 weeks of laboratory
  Course Director: Khosrow Kashfi, Ph.D.

This is an intermediate course, which includes most of the topics covered in a traditional pre-med General Chemistry course, but delves more deeply into concepts and principles that will appear in the student's medical career. These involve acid-base behavior, some aspects of thermodynamics, and selected properties of liquids, gases and solutions, among others. Most of the principles and concepts taught are applied to biological systems. Mathematical techniques needed to understand the principles of chemistry are integrated into the course, and elementary physics concepts are reviewed.

• MED 20300
  Bio-Organic Chemistry
  Fall, 2nd Year/5 credits
  4 lecture, 1 recitation and 3 laboratory hours per week
  Prerequisites: MED 10200
  Duration: 15 weeks of lecture and recitation, 7 weeks of laboratory
  Course Director: Khosrow Kashfi, Ph.D.

This is a course in which some aspects of a traditional one-year Organic Chemistry course are covered, with an emphasis on reaction mechanisms, stereochemistry, etc. The organic chemistry is immediately applied to the appropriate class of biological molecules. So in effect we are introducing a more biochemistry-oriented organic chemistry. Topics such as carbohydrates, carboxylic acids and lipids, etc. will be discussed. This integration of organic and biochemistry will difuse the boundary between the two areas and will better prepare the students for entry into the Molecules-to-Cells course.