MOLECULAR TECHNOLOGIES
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2021/2022
- Teacher
- DARIO BALESTRA
- Credits
- 6
- Curriculum
- Biologia molecolare e cellulare
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- BIO/11
Training objectives
- Through the acquisition of appropriate technical-molecular knowledge, the main educational goal of the course is to develop a scientific competence aimed at understanding and evaluating in a critical manner the recent scientific studies with particular emphasis to those connected with the strategies to modulate the gene expression. For each subject taken into account, the course will provide both the basic knowledge and the technical-molecular methodologies. This will be the base for understanding experiments and correctly evaluate the scientific aspects treated.
Knowledge and Understanding
The student knows:
- Biochemical and physiological bases of systems and cell biological processes
-chemical and biochemical basis of protein macromolecular structures and nucleic acids
- the basic cellular organization
-the basic techniques in biochemical and biological field and for the analysis of nucleic acids
Applying knowledge and understanding
The student is able to:
- Make correct use terminology related to nucleic acids
-understand the main metabolic pathways of nucleic acids
-understand and design trategies to i) study regulatory mechanisms of gene expression and ii) for their modulation. Prerequisites
- The student must have basic knowledge of exact sciences (physics,
chemistry and mathematics) and a knowledge of molecular and cell biology and
biochemistry. Course programme
- The course will focus on methodologies for the study of gene expression and its modulation, also for biotechnological purposes. It will also consider examples of human diseases caused by genetic defects that interfere with gene expression at various levels, from transcription to translation. The programme also include elements of protein engineering
The main topics of the programme will be:
Genome editing by CRISP/Cas9 (8 hours)
Transcriptional activation and repression (8 hours)
- gene transcription and the regulatory mechanisms
-the exploitation of reporter genes and inducible propoters
-the modulation of gene transcription by engineered transcription factors (TALE-TF; CRISPR-TF)
Pre-mRNA splicing: study of mechanisms and modulation (8 hours)
-the splicing mechanisms and the regulatory elements
-strategies to study splicing
-modulation of splcing by antisense oligonucleotides or engineered U1snRNA, U6snRNA and U7snRNA
Translation termination (8 hours)
-the mechanisms and the process of ribosome readthrough
-strategies to evaluate translation termination
-modulation of ribosome readthrough
Genome editing (8 hours)
Approaches of protein engineering (8 hours) Didactic methods
- The course will consists of frontal lessons. In particular, the 48 total hours of teaching (6 credits). Classes are held weekly in the classroom and the exposure will be done through the use of power
point slides and, for better understanding of the lessons even using the classical blackboard. Learning assessment procedures
- The aim of the examination is to test the level of knowledge and depth of the topics covered during the course of the program of the course as well as 'the capacity' of reasoning developed by the student. The assessment is expressed in thirtieths (minimum grade 18). With the exception of students who have difficulties, the exam consists of a written examination with the administration of five open questions. The answers to the questions are judged both for the content and for the appropriateness of the scientific language used. The maximum score is 106 points for each question
Reference texts
- Schemes, figures and scientific articles (both original articles that review) provided by the teacher.
Molecular Biology of the Gene Watson Baker et al Zanichelli
BIOTECNOLOGIE MOLECOLARI -Zanichelli
INGEGNERIA GENETICA - Zanichelli
