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Indian Institute of Chemical Biology
Kolkata-700 032
PhD Course Work at IICB: Basic and Advanced Courses
1st Semester
Basic Courses: (Compulsory for both Biology & Chemistry students except no.4&5)
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Course no.1. Computer:
Basic Operating System (1), MS-Windows & Information Technology, Demonstration of
Sigma plot (3 ), Mat Lab Programme, SPSS, Curve fitting, statistical data process,
Graphics, Image Processing, Web tools for Genomics & Biological Databases (3+3)
Micro & Macro Molecular Modeling, Rational Drug Design (4)
Course no.2. Statistical Analysis
Introduction to statistical analysis & Measures of dispersion (3)
Statistical Interference, Various Distribution functions, Tests of Significance (4)
Correlation and regression, Chi square test (4)
Course no. 3: Instrumental Analysis
Chromatography & Mass Spectroscopy (4)
Circular Dichroism, Fluorescence Spectroscopy
(2)
Molecular Biology Techniques (PCR, DNA sequencing &Electrophoresis)
FACS, Con-focal Microscopy & Introduction to AFM (2)
NMR, Electron Microscope, TEM & SEM, X-ray Crystallography (3)
(2)
Course no. 4: Basic Chemistry (for Biology students)
Thermodynamics, Solutions & ion (2)
Chemical Kinetics (2)
Stereochemistry
(3)
Introduction to Drug discovery (Medicinal Chemistry Approach) (2)
Drug target, discovery & development (Forward & Reverse approach)
(2)
Course no. 5: Basic Biology (for Chemistry students)
Cell structure and Function
(2)
Cell Biology
(2)
Enzymes Overview & Enzyme Kinetics (2)
Nucleic Acids & Protein Synthesis (2)
Metabolic Pathways (2)
Drug target, discovery & development (Forward & Reverse approach)
(2)
Course no. 6: Communication skills (scientific) development (9), Ethics & Safety (4)
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2nd Semester
Advanced Courses: Advanced Chemistry & Advanced Biology
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Advanced Chemistry [For Chemistry students]
Module-I
Introduction to Chemical Biology (6)
Concepts, difference between biochemistry, Biological chemistry and Chemical biology,
contribution of Prof. Stuart L Schreiper in chemical biology, essential topics in chemical
biology and chemical biology journals.
Epothilone, its analogs, its chemistry and various synthesis, Chemical biology of
epothilone, Design rational of protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibitors,
Chemistry (synthesis) of natural product based PTP inhibitors,
Mechanism of PTP catalysis, Active site structure of PTP, PTP1B and type II diabetes.
Module-II
Chemistry of Natural products & structural elucidation using modern tools (6)
Structure elucidation of synthetic & natural compounds:
Natural Products & Application of 2-D NMR techniques viz. HMBC, HSQC, TOCSY,
NOESY, COSY etc.
Epothilone based lead structures from natural products to”non-natural” natural products
as new cancer inhibitor; Structure activity relationship (SAR) guided synthesis of different
epothilon analogues, Pharmacophore features of epothilon-synthetic studies ;Total
Synthesis of 1 natural product (Dysidiod) as PTPIB inhibitor.
Module-III
Synthetic Chemistry
(6)
Advanced/ modern synthetic reaction Heck reaction, radical reaction, sonogisera reaction,
Suzuki-coupling, aryl amination, aryl-etherification reaction, ring-closing metatheses,
Pausand khan reaction,
Chemical and biochemical approach for the synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA);
solid phase synthesis of peptides;
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Advanced Biology [For Biology students]
Module-I:
Molecular & Cellular Imaging (Cryo-Electrón Microscopy, AFM) (7)
What is Cryo-EM & how it differs from conventional TEM techniques.
The experimental method of cryo-EM: grid Prepn, taking pictures in TEM,
3D reconstruction techniques, Complementarity of X ray & Cryo-EM,
Important application of Cryo-EM: ribosome as an example.
Biological imaging-Tools & Practice: GFP& GFP like proteins, Expression of GFP like
protein from gene fusion, LASER con-focal microscopy.
Demonstration: Imaging application using A1R confocal, 3D reconstruction of fixed cells
leveled with fluorescence probes, 3D image of rat skeleton muscle, 3D image of live cell
expressing GFP RNA targeted to mitochondria.
Module-II:
Cell Signaling
( 6)
Signal Transduction in Cancer and Stem Cells: Cell-Cell Communication, Cell Surface
Receptors, Cell Signaling Overview, Signal Transduction in Cancer, Concept of Stem Cells
and Cancer Stem Cells, Cancer-linked Stem Cell Signaling/Developmental Pathways,
Regulation of gene expression – cell cycle Cell Death &apoptosis, Mitochondrial Pathway,
Death receptor pathway, Oncogeneactivation , Smoking and Cancer
Module-III:
Immune Response (6)
Molecular Biology of Immunoglobulins, Major Histocompatibility Complex,
transplantation, MHC restriction, Antigen presentation and antigen processing,
Compliment, Cytokines, Hypersensitivity,Immunodefciencies, Autoimmune disorders,
tolerance.
Module-IV:
Gene Regulation [Both Prokaryotic & Eukaryotic] (6)
Eukaryotes vs. Prokaryotes Txn , Cis/Trans Regulation , Assembly of Txn Complex ,
Enhancer, Silencer , Insulter ; Methods for studying TF; Txn-Dynamics& Fidelity;
Noise in Txn.
Regulation by micro-RNA: miRNA & other non-coding RNA ; General Principle of mi RNA
mediated gene regulation , mi RNA and diseases, mi RNA & translation repression,
Inhibitory mi RNA function
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Interdisciplinary Courses
[Combined courses for both Chemistry & Biology researchers]

Systems Biology
(6)
Systems biology of cellular signaling pathways, systems biology of cancer pathways,
systems biology approach to identify therapeutic targets.
Introduction to Dynamical Systems Theory and its applications which include:
(i)
Motifs and Modules in biological networks and their dynamics.
(ii)
The Genetic Toggle
(iii) Dynamics of the cell division cycle
An elementary introduction to stochastic gene expression

Synthetic Biology (Metabolic Engineering)
(6)
Synthetic regulatory circuits, role of noise in genetic circuits, robustness of regulatory
circuits, digital logics.
Design rules, gene expression tools various vectors and promoters, control of gene
expression, use of inducible promoters, population analysis of engineered hosts, regulated
pathway controls, balancing biosynthetic enzymatic reactions, individual control elements,
synthetic operons, designing of mRNA stability

Cell and Tissue Engineering
(6)
Hybrid cell generation by Electro fusion
Preparation of Hybrid cells by Electro fusion
Application of Hybrid cells as an immunostimulator
Potential application for vaccine development against intracellular pathogens