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Vanessa
- Rate R257
- Response 1h
-
Students2
Number of students Vanessa has accompanied since joining Superprof
Number of students Vanessa has accompanied since joining Superprof

R257/h
1st lesson free
- Biochemistry
PhD in Chemistry teaches online Biochemistry, General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry to university students
- Biochemistry
Lesson location
About Vanessa
I'm Vanessa Aitken. I have a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Texas at El Paso (United States), and an MSc and a BSc in Chemistry from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (Chile). I have been teaching for 9 years and have worked with more than 500 students.
My PhD was in biochemistry and molecular biology. I have four articles published in international journals, in organic synthesis and biochemistry. I was a teaching assistant at USM from 2017 to 2022, and from 2022 I taught the Organic Chemistry laboratory at UTEP, in English, with more than 100 students per year.
I work well with students who struggle with chemistry or who come to the subject afraid of it. I explain things as many times as needed, without rushing and without making fun of anyone's questions.
About the lesson
- BTech
- Adult education
- Undergraduate
- +1
levels :
BTech
Adult education
Undergraduate
Masters
- English
Languages in which the lesson is available :
English
Online Biochemistry and Molecular Biology classes for university students, by video call with a digital whiteboard.
First class: I use the free 30 minutes as a planning session. We decide how many classes you need and how often, what kind of work your case needs (course content, exercises or both), and we review the course syllabus, the textbooks and the material your professor uses, so the classes follow exactly what you will be assessed on. If you prefer to start working straight away, you can add those 30 minutes to the first class: a first session of an hour and a half for the price of one hour.
What we cover: amino acids, peptides, protein structure and folding; carbohydrates; lipids and membranes; nucleic acids. Enzymology: Michaelis–Menten kinetics, inhibition, allosteric regulation and catalysis. Metabolism: glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, the electron transport chain and oxidative phosphorylation, gluconeogenesis, beta-oxidation, nitrogen metabolism and metabolic integration. Bioenergetics. Molecular biology: replication, transcription, translation and gene regulation, plus laboratory techniques such as PCR, cloning, mutagenesis and protein purification.
My PhD was in exactly this area: I worked with RNA-based molecular machines, ribosome assembly and RNA helicases in E. coli. I didn't learn it from a book; I did it at the bench. As first author, I also analysed the data and wrote a paper on an enzyme assay for the Zika virus RNA polymerase.
The usual problem with biochemistry is that it is taught as a list of names to memorise. Metabolic pathways have a logic: each step is there for a chemical and energetic reason. Once you see that logic, you stop memorising twenty enzymes and understand a pathway.
I also teach General Chemistry (stoichiometry, solutions, chemical equilibrium, acids and bases, thermochemistry, redox and kinetics) and Organic Chemistry I and II, at the same hourly rate.
Suitable for students of Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Nutrition, Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, and for thesis students who need help with experimental design, analysing results or scientific writing. Classes in Spanish or English.
Rates
Rate
- R257
Package rates
- 5h: R1284
- 10h: R2567
free lesson
The free first lesson with Vanessa allows you to get to know the tutor and discuss your needs and expectations.
- 30min
online
- R257/h
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