Syllabus for Ph. D Admission Test in Biochemistry

Syllabus for Ph. D Admission Test in Biochemistry for the Academic Session 2009-2010 in the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, A. M. U., Aligarh:

1. Molecular Cell Biology: Constituents of human cell, their structure and function; properties of cell membrane and transport across membrane; cytoskeletons, epithelia and extracellular matrix; cell communication; programmed cell death; cell differentiation and cancer; p-53 gene; cancer present and future; stem cells and their possible role in therapy; neurobiology and neurochemistry; functions of muscle proteins; telomers and telomerase.

2. Blood and Biological Fluids: Hemoglobin, albumin and porins; serum proteins; chemistry of blood clotting; blood group; composition and diagnostic significance of cerebrospinal fluid and amniotic fluid; acute phase proteins (hsp).

3. Advanced Enzymology: Properties and catalytic behavior of enzymes; enzyme kinetics and regulation; mechanism of action of enzyme catalysis; therapeutic uses of enzymes; diagnostic significance of serum enzymes and isoenzymes; enzymatic markers in cardiac disorders; abzymes; allosteric enzymes.

4. Metabolism and its Integration and Basic Clinical Biochemistry: Metabolisms of carbohydrate, lipid, amino acids, proteins, heme and nucleic acids; inborn errors of metabolism; interrelationship and regulation of metabolic pathways; electron transport chain and oxidative phosphorylation. Metabolic and respiratory acidosis; analysis of analytes in blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid; Liver function test (LFT); markers of myocardial infarction; fasting and post prandial blood sugar test; prostrate serum antigen (PSA) test; anti-DNA antibody test

5. Hormones: Role of hormones in the regulation of metabolism and mechanism of their action; consequences of hormone dysfunction; eicosanoids.

6. Advanced Molecular Biology: Structural aspects of genetic materials; replication and transcription; post transcriptional processing; translation; regulation of gene expression; DNA repair; human genome project and its implications; principles of cloning; recombinant DNA technology and its application; DNA vaccines; sequencing; screening of rDNA libraries; gene silencing; amplification and mutagenesis; restriction and molecular genetic maps; genomics and proteomics; antisense therapy.

7. Immunology: Immune response; cellular and protein components of immune system; antibody diversity and immunoglobulin genes; multiple myeloma; complement; monoclonal antibodies and their role in diagnostics and therapeutics; immunobiology of HIV and anti-HIV drugs; autoimmune disorders; mad cow disease; swine flue.

8. Vitamins, ions, trace elements: Metabolism of Ca, Pi, and trace elements (Se, Zn, Cu, Fe). Role of Na, K and Cl in homeostasis and related disorders; regulation of acid-base balance; biochemical functions of vitamins; vitamin toxicity; vitamin deficiency; vitamin-responsive inherited metabolic disorders; role of vitamins in free radical homeostasis.

9. Free radicals and anti-oxidants: Chemistry and pathology of free radicals and anti-oxidants.

10. Bioenergetics, Bioinformatics, Bioorganic and Biophysical Chemistry: Principles of bioenergetics, bioorganic and biophysical chemistry; spectroscopy and bioinformatics.

11. Techniques: Basic principles of sedimentation and analysis of sub-cellular fractions; HPLC; affinity chromatography; immunodiffusion; principles of electrophoresis; ultraviolet and visible light spectroscopy, circular dichroism spectroscopy; spectrofluorometry; band shift assay; array technology; DNA fingerprinting; ELISA; radioimmunoassay; immunoblotting; polymerase chain reaction; restriction mapping of DNA fragments; cell culture; nanomedicine technology; enzyme engineering.

12. Clinical and Experimental Estimations and Characterizations: estimation of LDL and HDL cholesterol in serum; enzymatic estimation of glucose; factors affecting enzyme activity; colorimetric estimation of bilirubin and urea in serum; UV characterization of DNA; flourometric properties of proteins; polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE); affinity purification of IgG by Protein-A- Sepharose column.

13. Quality Control and Biostatistics: Quality Control and automation in clinical biochemistry; biostatistics and its application in research and clinical biochemistry; selection of statistical methods and their evaluation; sample size for designing experiments; standard error; standard deviation; student’s and paired ‘t’ tests; Chi-square test; fisher exact test; non-parametic tests of significance; multivariate analysis methods; one-way and two-way analysis of variance; multiple range tests.