Biochemistry Honours
University of Stellenbosch
Why this programme is for you …
Our department offers a Biochemistry Honours programme that is unique to South Africa. If you join us, you will have an interesting and stimulating year ahead of you as a student of biochemistry. During your undergraduate studies you learned to read, write and talk the language of “biochemistry”; our Honours course gives you the opportunity to really think and reason in biochemical terms. In contrast to the undergraduate courses, the emphasis in the Honours programme is on scientific skills rather than on factual content. You will practise and enhance your theoretical, analytical, critical, experimental, written, verbal, numerical and computer skills; at the end of the programme you will be ready to embark on a career as independent scientist in any of the molecular biological scientific disciplines. This short overview briefly explains how the programme will be run and lists its components. The course assessment is on a continuous basis—each section counts a percentage towards your final mark.
If you are interested in joining us, contact the departmental chairperson.
Language policy
The Biochemistry Honours course is presented in English. This means that we can accommodate students from all over South Africa in the programme. At the discretion of the lecturer, Afrikaans may be used in classroom discussions if all the students are comfortable with the language. Students may answer their test and exam papers in either Afrikaans or English.
Admission requirements
To be admitted into the Biochemistry Honours course, students must have successfully completed a BSc programme with a minimum mark of 60% for Biochemistry 3 (or equivalent).
Course components
Index
First semester
Presentation of third-year practicals
You will assist with the preparation and running of the third-year practicals (protein biochemistry) during the first semester. This will enable you to gain experience in the techniques of protein biochemistry. Students are formally employed as student assistants and paid by the University for performing this task.
Writing skills
Scientific communication entails verbal explanation and written reports. Both aspects will be specifically developed in the Honours course. This short course will enhance your written skills. As a scientist, a lot hinges on good written communication of your results: excellent results can lose much of their impact if they are presented poorly in a publication.
During your Honours year, you will be required to write two seminars (literature reviews) and a report on your practical project. To enhance your scientific writing skills and equip you for these tasks, we present a course addressing issues such as writing style, sentence and paragraph construction, developing a logical argument, common language errors, and many more.
Library skills
One of your very first tasks will be to get to know the library really well, because it is a very important place for you as an Honours student and later as a scientist. Our subject specialist in the library will teach you how to use a few of the library resources and you will apply this knowledge by performing a set of tasks. During the course of the year you will become experienced library users by preparing your lectures, seminars and research projects.
Science, philosophy and ethics
The Philosophy department offers a course on Science, Philosophy and
Ethics (Philosophy 712). This course is compulsory for all Honours students
in the Faculty of Science, so you will have the opportunity to meet fellow
Honours students from other departments (about 130 Hons students in total
will attend the course). This course will allow you to stand back a while
from your daily involvement with Biochemistry and think about science in
general and what practising science means.
Assessment: Essays, exam, as determined by Philosophy department
Scientific explanation and presentation
Every scientist is expected not only to publish his/her research
results, but also to explain them verbally to colleagues (and students),
e.g. at scientific congresses. A good explanation and a good lecture or
presentation always have certain characteristics. You have to acquire these
skills and practise them
regularly. A workshop will be presented to enhance this aspect of your
scientific training, making use of video recordings.
Assessment: Assessment of skills in oral presentations of seminars and poster presentations of research projects.
Mini-courses
During the first semester a number of lecturers will cover specialised
topics of their own choice in three-week mini courses. You will receive a
detailed timetable from the lecturer concerned at the beginning of each
course. The format includes lectures, tasks and discussions. You will be
actively involved and in some cases have to present lectures yourselves.
Assessment: At the discretion of the lecturer
The topics change from year to year; during 2001, the following courses were presented:
- Energy metabolism of muscle during exercise
(Dr Marina Rautenbach)
“The muscle metabolism of athletes doing regular aerobic exercise (e.g. cycling, swimming and running) differs from that of athletes doing predominantly sprints or ‘impulse sports’ such as weight lifting or long jump.” The energy metabolism will be reviewed and discussed in the light of the above statement. - Control of gene expression of the immunoglobulin genes
(Prof Dirk Bellstedt)
The embryonal immunoglobulin genes are subject to mechanisms which generate antibody diversity. In the later life of a vertebrate, challenge with different types of antigens elicits immune responses which are mediated by well regulated immunoglobulin gene expression patterns. These mechanisms will be studied in detail in this course. - Membrane transport
(Mr Edward Foster)
Transport across membranes might not be the most important cellular process, but it must surely be one of the more important ones. The cellular membrane is relatively impermeable to ions and most bio-molecules and yet a variety of ions and bio-molecules do cross membranes freely. In this mini-course, a closer look will be taken at the essential aspects of that movement. - Regulation of eukaryotic transcription
(Prof Janet Hapgood and Dr Ann Louw)
The course, in the form of a workshop, involves a discussion of the theory and major techniques used to study transcriptional control of gene expression in eukaryotes. This includes the study of mRNA levels, transcription start sites, promoter function, transcription factors and protein-DNA interactions. These techniques will be discussed in the context of typical fundamental research projects. - Metabolic behaviour, control, regulation and modelling
(Dr Johann Rohwer and Prof Jacky Snoep)
We will discuss how networks of coupled enzyme-catalysed reactions work together as a system, the behaviour of different metabolic structures, the control of metabolism, and how this behaviour can be usefully described and studied using the framework of control analysis. Using a hands-on approach, students will be introduced to kinetic modelling on the computer as a tool for studying the behaviour of metabolic pathways.
Second semester
Research project
This is an important part of the course. From the beginning of the
second semester you will join one of the research groups in our
department. Your task will be to complete a research project to the
satisfaction of your supervisor. You will acquire the following skills in
the context of a real research environment in a laboratory: formulation of
a hypothesis, design and execution of experiments, time management,
analysis of results and drawing of conclusions.
Assessment: You will have to write up your results in the standard
format of a research paper. In November our department will host a mini
symposium where you will present your results in the form of a poster and a
short oral presentation, as is common at scientific congresses.
Throughout the year
Guest lecture course
A series of lectures will be presented by guest lecturers from
universities in the Western Cape. They are experts in diverse research
areas of biochemistry and molecular biology. The aim is to expose the
Honours students to different research areas based on biochemistry and to
give you a perspective on the kind of research that is currently being done
in the Western Cape. Topics to be covered include, amongst others, plant
genetics and physiology, cancer, tuberculosis, biomining, natural products,
ligand-receptor interactions, genetic defects and cellular signal
transduction.
Every guest lecture will run for one morning, and the format is a
presentation followed by discussion.
Dates: Thursday mornings, every 3rd week, throughout the
year. Alternating with Article Analysis and Data Analysis.
Assessment: Every guest lecture will be attended by a staff member
from our department. He/she will assess you on the basis of your
participation in the discussion after the guest lecture.
Article analysis
The Honours class meets with a lecturer to study, discuss, analyse and
criticise a research article. The format of this activity normally is as
follows: you receive a research paper of which the summary and discussion
have been omitted. The paper is handed out on a Monday. During the course
of the week you read the paper, look up unknown aspects in text books and
discuss it with each other. You will also have to answer questions on the
paper (a comprehension test) and finally write a summary (abstract) for the
paper. This will practise your comprehensive, analytical, synthetic and
writing skills. The article analysis is then discussed with the lecturer
concerned on the Thursday morning.
Dates: Thursday mornings, every 3rd week, throughout the year.
Assessment: On two occasions (June and November) you will have to
study and analyse an unseen paper according to the above format and write a
comprehension test (3 hours) about it.
Data-analysis
Here you will practise your skills in the analysis, manipulation and
interpretation of experimental data. The problems are usually based on raw
experimental data, with some background supplied on the experimental
approach and techniques used. You will work on the problems on Thursday
mornings and afterwards discuss them with the lecturer concerned.
Dates: Thursday mornings, every 3rd week, throughout the year.
Assessment: On two occasions (June and November) you will write a
problem test on data analysis (3 hours).
Seminars
During the course of the year you will write two seminars (literature
reviews). The first one is a shorter seminar of approximately 10 typed
pages; the second one is somewhat longer (20 typed pages). Under the
supervision of a lecturer (allocated to you), you will write the seminar
according to a set format. In addition to the written copy, you also have
to deliver an oral presentation on the seminar. The seminars run
concurrently with the other activities in the Honours course.
Dates: One seminar per semester. Oral presentations in June and November.
Assessment: Both the written seminar and the oral presentation will
be assessed.
Biochemistry Forum
The Biochemistry Forum is a departmental activity. The aim of this lecture series is to give MSc and PhD students, lecturers and invited guest speakers an opportunity to present a lecture on a specialised topic (normally their own research results). Attendance is compulsory for Honours students, but you will not have to present lectures yourselves. However, you can learn a lot from these talks and are encouraged to participate actively and ask questions.
Journal club
This is an important component of academic life in our department and takes place on a continuous basis. One person will present a recent research paper from a scientific journal, after which the whole department discusses it. Honours students are encouraged to attend the Journal Club and participate in the discussions. However, it is not compulsory. The research paper will be available from the secretary beforehand, so that you can study it.