Co-sponsored by Chautauqua Programs

For the faculty members whose main focus is teaching undergraduate students, PCMI offers the opportunity to renew excitement about mathematics, talk with peers about new teaching approaches, address some challenging research questions, and interact with the broader mathematical community. Each year the theme of the UFP bridges the research and education themes of the Summer Institute.

Introducation to Molecular Cell Biology for Mathematicians
John Tyson of Virginia Technical Insitute

Prerequisite:  Basic chemistry

Topics addressed during the PCMI summer session will include:

• Cell structure: space and time scales in MCB
• Informational macromolecules of the cell: proteins and nucleic acids
• Bioenergetics: implications of the first and second lawss of thermodynamics
• Enzyme catalysis, kenetics and regulation
• Metabolic pathways: glycolysis in detail, metabolic control theory
• Replication of gene expression
• Cell cycle regulation and cancer
• Membrane structure, function and transport
• Membrane potential and electrical signaling in cells
• Membrane receptors, ligands and signal transduction pathways
• Calcium and cyclic AMP as second messengers
• Cytoskeleton, mobility and contractility

Recommended text(s):  The World of the Cell, 5th Edition, Wayne M Becker, et. al.

The Coordinator of PCMI's Undergraduate Faculty Program, Daniel Goroff, is Professor of the Practice of Mathematics at Harvard University and Associate Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.