Protein Folding and Human Disease
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this advanced course on how amino acid sequences control protein folding, misfolding, and amyloid aggregation. Readings and discussions cover chaperone structure and function, the folding and assembly of fibrous proteins, and the pathologies tied to protein deposition in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, and related diseases. Students engage with primary literature and are required to write and present an original research paper, giving the course the depth of a graduate seminar rather than a survey lecture. Materials are drawn from MIT's Biology and Chemical Engineering departments, reflecting the course's interdisciplinary approach to molecular mechanisms behind neurodegenerative disease. As with other MIT OCW offerings, all course materials are free to access, though no certificate is awarded. This suits students who already have background in biochemistry and want to examine current research on why proteins misfold and what that misfolding does to cells.