MIT School of Bioengineering Sciences and Research

(A Constituent unit of MIT ADT University)

ESSENTIALS OF BIOPHYSICS
COURSE CODE: BM501

Topic: Introduction to Biophysics

Saturday, 10 October 2020 MIT-ADT University/SBSR/BM501/Dr. Preetam Bala 1

 Credit: Science History Images/Alamy Stock Photo

Luigi Galvani (pictured), laid the foundations of electrophysiology by studying the effect of electricity on frog leg muscle
movements in the late eighteenth century

Saturday, 10 October 2020 MIT-ADT University/SBSR/BM501/Dr. Preetam Bala 2

History
• Relatively young branch of science

• Term ‘biophysics’ was originally introduced by Karl Pearson in

1892

• Heraclitus 5th century B.C. – earliest mechanistic theories of

life process, insight into dynamics.

• Epicurus – 3rd century B.C. mechanistic studies

• Arose as a definite subfield in the early to mid-20th Century

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History
• Galen – 2nd century A.D. – medical researcher – various principles of
Biophysics and bridging to anatomy

• Leonardo Da Vinci – 16th century – mechanical principle of bird flight.

• Foundations for the study of biophysics were laid down in the 19th
Century, by a group of physiologists in Berlin

• 1856, Adolf Fick, published the first biophysics textbook

• Erwin Schrödinger published the book ‘What is Life?’, in 1944.

• based on a series of public lectures that Schrödinger gave on explaining the
processes of living things through physics and chemistry.

• proposed the idea that there was a molecule in living things that contained genetic
information in covalent bonds

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 Definition: Biophysics is the study of physical phenomena and physical processes in

Biophysics living things, on scales spanning molecules, cells, tissues and organisms. Biophysicists
use the principles and methods of physics to understand biological systems. It is an
interdisciplinary science, closely related to quantitative and systems biology. (Nature)

• how the molecules of life are made

field that applies the theories and • how different parts of a cell move and function
methods of physics to understand how • how complex systems in our bodies, i.e. the brain,

biological systems work circulation, immune system, and others work

o Uniquely trained in the quantitative sciences of physics, math, and chemistry

o Able to tackle a wide array of topics, ranging from how nerve cells communicate, to how plant
Biophysicists
cells capture light and transform it into energy, to how changes in the DNA of healthy cells can
trigger their transformation into cancer cells, to so many other biological problems.

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Division
biological molecules including proteins, energy transduction in
nucleic acids, and lipids membranes, protein folding
and structure leading to
specific functions, cell
using mathematical modeling to Molecular movement, and the
study biological systems. Biophysics electrical behaviour of cells

Biomechanics
Theoretical
Biophysics

Bio
Environmental electrochemistry

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Applications
computer models
The structure of DNA was called neural
solved in 1953 using networks to model
biophysics how the brain and
nervous system
work

Data Analysis and Structure Neuroscience Medical Applications

many life-saving treatments
and devices including kidney
better prosthetic dialysis, radiation therapy,
see and manipulate the
limbs, and better cardiac defibrillators,
shapes and structures of
nanomaterials for pacemakers, and artificial
proteins, viruses, and
drug delivery heart valves
other complex molecules

Computer Modelling Bioengineering, Nanotechnologies, Biomaterials

how hormones move

around the cell, and
MRIs, CT scans,
how cells
communicate with
and PET scans Ecosystems
each other using measures and models all aspects of
fluorescent tags the environment from the
Molecules in Motion Imaging stratosphere to deep ocean vents
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Modules
M: Modules
Blotting M1

Chromatography M2
Separation • History
techniques
BIOPHYSICS
Electrophoresis M3 • Concept
• Principle
Centrifugation M4
• Types
X Ray M5
Crystallography • Methodology
Analysis • Applications
Spectroscopy M6
techniques
Radiation M7
Biophysics

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Blotting techniques

Blotting techniques are used to separate

molecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins.

In cells, they exist as a mixture. Blotting allows

researchers to find one protein among many, like
a needle in a haystack

• Southern (Detect DNA)

• Northern (Detect RNA)

• Western (Detect Protein)

Saturday, 10 October 2020 MIT-ADT University/SBSR/BM501/Dr. Preetam Bala 9

Chromatography

Chromatography is used to separate

mixtures of substances into their
components.

All forms of chromatography work on the

same principle:
The mobile phase flows through the
stationary phase and carries the
components of the mixture with it.
Different components travel at different
rates

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Electrophoresis

Electrophoresis is the motion of

dispersed particles relative to a fluid
under the influence of a spatially
uniform electric field.

Principles of electrophoresis:
Electrophoresis is a method used to separate
charged particles from one another based on
differences in their migration speed.

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Centrifugation

Centrifugation is a technique used for the

separation of particles from a solution according to
their size, shape, density, viscosity of the medium
and rotor speed.
The particles are suspended in a liquid medium
and placed in a centrifuge tube. The tube is then
placed in a rotor and spun at a define speed.

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X Ray Crystallography
X-ray crystallography (XRC) is a technique used for
determining the atomic and molecular structure
of a crystal

The crystalline structure causes a beam of

incident X-rays to diffract into many specific
directions

Saturday, 10 October 2020 MIT-ADT University/SBSR/BM501/Dr. Preetam Bala 13

Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between
matter and electromagnetic radiation.
spectroscopy originated through the study of visible light
dispersed according to its wavelength, by a prism.

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Radiation Biophysics

Result of Ionizing Radiation interacts with

biological tissue

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