Cellular Biophysics
Unit code: HET240
| Credit points | 12.5 Credit Points |
| Duration | 1 Semester |
| Contact hours | 5 Hours per Week |
| Campus | Hawthorn |
| Prerequisites | HET102 Introductory Physiology and either HET124 Energy and Motion or HET182 |
| Corequisites | Nil |
Related course(s)
Aims and objectives
To establish an understanding of the physiology of cellular processes by the application of physics principles.Content
- Membrane phenomena: Structure and function of membranes and membrane channels, modes of transport of ions and non-electrolytes; Diffusive processes; Fick's laws, Nernst and Donnan equilibrium, osmosis, Goldman equation, Ussing flux ratio equation 'pore' hypothesis.
- Properties of electrodes: Measurement of intracellular potentials; electrode processes; half cell potentials – overpotentials, high impedance, microelectrodes, recording arrangements. Electrical and volume conduction properties of nerves; cable model.
- Experimental techniques: voltage clamping and patch clamping, Hodgkin-Huxley model. The action potential: strength-duration curves, neuropathies.
- Pre-and post-synaptic processes: inhibitors and agonists; statistical analysis of mepps; receptors and neurotransmitters: types and mode of operation; inhibitory and excitatory neurons, integrative functions of soma.
- Muscle: length tension relationships, Hill equation, ultrastructure, excitation-contraction coupling, sliding filament theory, metabolic aspects, E-C coupling in smooth muscle, pathophysiology of muscle, electromyography; Cellular basis of muscle fatique. Performance consideration; metabolism and energetics.
Reading materials
Martini, F, Fundamentals of Anatomy & Physiology, 4th edn, Prentice Hall International, 1998.Guyton, AC & Hall, Textbook of Medical Physiology, 9th edn, Saunders, 1996.
Plonsey, RL & Barr, R, Biolelectric Phenomena, Plenum, 1988.
Weiss, TF, Cellular Biophysics, Vol. 2, MIT Press, 1996.
