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Preparing for Healthcare


Course Description

Addresses basic science concepts students encounter in chemistry and biology courses that serve as prerequisites for medical, physician assistant, dental, and veterinary schools. Newly developed illustrations, animations, and interactive models will reinforce the role each concept plays in an important disease encountered worldwide, thereby providing a clinical context to this material.


Athena Title

Preparing for Healthcare


Non-Traditional Format

This course will be taught 95% or more online.


Semester Course Offered

Offered fall, spring and summer


Grading System

A - F (Traditional)


Student Learning Outcomes

  • After completion of the course, students will be able to explain how the composition of the side chains of amino acids effects their location in the final three-dimensional structure of proteins.
  • After completion of the course, students will be able to differentiate between the pathways used by hydrophilic substances, steroid hormones, and water molecules to cross cell membranes.
  • After completion of the course, students will be able to describe the location and clinical importance of the mucociliary escalator in the respiratory tract.
  • After completion of the course, students will be able to explain the processes responsible for the production of hydrochloric acid by the stomach and its neutralization in the small intestine.

Topical Outline

  • Electrostatic interactions among molecules in the body
  • Interactions and bonds between amino acids
  • Transcription and translation
  • Mucociliary escalator function in the respiratory tract
  • Production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach
  • The role of pancreatic enzymes and secretions in digestion
  • Clinical effects of genetic mutations on protein structure and function

Syllabus