Biophysics: Cellular Systems and Physical Principles

This lecture introduces the interdisciplinary science of biophysics, focusing on the physical principles underlying the organization of life at the molecular scale. Topics include biological membranes, molecular events like ligand binding, transport in cellular systems, and genomes. The course aims to strengthen model-building skills and expose students to complex systems in cellular biophysics. Concepts discussed range from simple numerical estimates to diffusion, statistical mechanics, and rate equation models. The lecture also covers the nature of living systems, the anatomy of cells, and the importance of studying bacteria, yeast, and mammalian cells. Through examples, the instructor illustrates non-equilibrium processes in cells, emerging features of non-equilibrium systems, and the use of machine learning to explore protein structure. The session concludes with a discussion on the sequence-structure relation of proteins.