It is widely believed that the twenty-first century will be the century of bio-sciences and bio-technology. However, physical sciences and engineering are expected not only to play crucial roles in this "revolution" but also get strongly influenced by the developments.
Physical sciences have helped in explaining many biological functions in terms of physical mechanisms arising from the specific structures and dynamics of biomaterials. Exotic biomaterials provide a fertile ground to the physicists to enrich the concepts and the toolbox of techniques. Similarly, new technologies developed by engineers not only open new methods of experimental investigations in biology but also inspire new engineering "designs", For example, new technologies have expedited the progress of the human genome project; at the same time, engineers have got the ideas of "designing" DNA computers and neural computers from the bio-materials. We shall follow the sequence of topics in the order of increasing complexity of the structures. Beginning with the bio-molecules, we shall next consider sub-cellular structures formed by self-assemblies of these bio-molecules and associated biological processes in living systems. Then we shall study the structures and processes at the level of the entire cells. Finally, we shall consider biological phenomena at the multi-cellular level.
Physics of biomolecules : Primary, secondary and tertiary structures; coil, helix and globule; DNA and RNA: Conformation- effects of elasticity, bending and twisting; entropic elasticity, fluctuations and supercoiling of DNA; Computing with DNA? Adleman's idea; Proteins: Fibrous and globular proteins, energy landscape and protein folding; Lipids: Hydrophobicity and supra-molecular self-assemblies (9).
Physics of sub-cellular structures and processes; The cell membrane: Composition and in-plane structure, lipid incompatibility and segregation; lipid-protein interactions; Out-of-plane undulations; mean and Gaussian curvature, bending energy and crumpling of the moduli of bending elasticity; Edge energy, defects in membranes and their classification; Interplay of in-plane order and our-of-plane undulations.
Membrane electrostatics; Can we "hear" the shape of a membrane ? Transport across cell membrane- passive and active transport, ion channels and pumps, transport by vesicles-endocytosis and exocytosis; Drug delivery into the cell.(12).
Physics of the cellular structure and processes: Structure of the cell and cell organelles: cytoskeleton, microtubules, cilia and flagella; Cellular traffic-filamentary "highway" and molecular motors; Calculation of efficiency of isothermal engines (!); Shapes of cells; Budding; Cell-substrate interactions; contacts and adhesion; Interaction of cells- entropic repulsions and adhesion; Movement of cells- swimming and crawling (12).
Physics of multi-cellular phenomena : Brain: a network of cells- Adaptive learning, content- addressable memory, Neural computers- a "dream machine"? (7).
Proposed by: Dr. Debashish Chowdhury, (Physics Department)
Other interested faculty members: Dr. P. Gupta Bhaya, (Chemistry Department)