Biophysics - Practice

Data

Official data in SubjectManager for the following academic year: 2026-2027

Topic

The Biophysics curse aims to introduce students to the methods and applications, that are routinely used in both medical and pharmaceutical biotechnology. The principles of the state-of-the-art approaches and instrumentations are covered by the topics. The course presents diverse spectroscopic techniques (absorption, fluorescence, infrared, Raman, EPR, NMR), imaging approaches (light and fluorescence microscopy, EM, super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, MRI, CT), radioactive applications, calorimetry, and fast kinetics techniques. The lectures discuss in detail the physical bases and principles of each approach and the field of applications. The practices are dedicated to expand the students' knowledge and routine with the use of different techniques. The practices lay special emphasis on presenting not only the routine applications but advanced uses of each technique. The limitations, as well as the artifacts that can be caused by improper experimental planning, are highlighted.

Lectures

Practices

• 1.

  Confocal microscopy, STED (Nano-Bio-Imaging Core Facility)

  - Jánosi Tibor Zoltán, Makkai Géza
• 2.

  Confocal microscopy, STED (Nano-Bio-Imaging Core Facility)

  - Jánosi Tibor Zoltán, Makkai Géza
• 3.

  STED, Confocal microscopy (Nano-Bio-Imaging Core Facility)

  - Makkai Géza, Jánosi Tibor Zoltán
• 4.

  STED, Confocal microscopy (Nano-Bio-Imaging Core Facility)

  - Makkai Géza, Jánosi Tibor Zoltán
• 5.

  SIM, STORM (Nano-Bio-Imaging Core Facility)

  - Huberné Barkó Szilvia, Jánosi Tibor Zoltán, Makkai Géza
• 6.

  SIM, STORM (Nano-Bio-Imaging Core Facility)

  - Huberné Barkó Szilvia, Jánosi Tibor Zoltán, Makkai Géza
• 7.

  Absorption photometry, fluorescence spectroscopy – protein research (Dept. of Biophysics)

  - Ujfalusi Zoltán
• 8.

  Absorption photometry, fluorescence spectroscopy – protein research (Dept. of Biophysics)

  - Ujfalusi Zoltán
• 9.

  Infrared and Raman spectroscopy (Dept. of Biophysics)

  - Telek Elek
• 10.

  Infrared and Raman spectroscopy (Dept. of Biophysics)

  - Telek Elek
• 11.

  Electron microscopy (Central Electron Microscope Lab.)

  - Agócs-Laboda Ágnes
• 12.

  Electron microscopy (Central Electron Microscope Lab.)

  - Agócs-Laboda Ágnes
• 13.

  MRI (Dept. of Biophysics)

  - Bukovics Péter
• 14.

  MRI (Dept. of Biophysics)

  - Bukovics Péter

Seminars

Reading material

Obligatory literature

Literature developed by the Department

All handouts and other related materials can be found in the Microsoft Teams group of the course.

Notes

Recommended literature

Conditions for acceptance of the semester

There are no additional conditions.

Mid-term exams

One written test is scheduled during the semester covering the topics/calculations/etc discussed during the practices. The expected date: 13th week. The practical grade is obtained based on the result of the test.

Grading policy:

< 60% fail (1)

60 – 69% satisfactory (2)

70 – 79% average (3)

80 – 89% good (4)

> 90% excellent (5)

To pass, at least 60% has to be reached at the test.

Two retake tests will be scheduled at the end of the semester/in the exam period. The schedule will be provided during the semester.

Making up for missed classes

The schedule for making up the missed practices will be provided during the semester.

Exam topics/questions

Topics of the exam questions:

Electromagnetic waves

Quantum numbers, NMR, MRI

Energy levels of atoms and molecules

Protein Structure. Introduction to protein engineering.

UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy

Fluorescence spectroscopy

Infrared and Raman spectroscopy

Flow cytometry

Light and fluorescence microscopy

Modern microscopic methods (STORM, STED, SIM, confocal, 2-photon)

Image analysis

Gamma camera, computed tomography (CT), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET)

Radioactivity, the interaction of radioactive radiations with matter

Biological effects of radioactive radiations, dosimetry

X-ray crystallography, SAXS, EM

Thermodynamics: laws and thermodynamic potentials

Calorimetry: differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC)

Analytical separation techniques: sedimentation, electrophoresis

Analytical separation techniques: chromatographic techniques

LASER

Examiners

Instructor / tutor of practices and seminars

• Agócs-Laboda Ágnes
• Bukovics Péter
• Huberné Barkó Szilvia
• Jánosi Tibor Zoltán
• Lukács András Szilárd
• Makkai Géza
• Telek Elek
• Ujfalusi Zoltán