Ateneo - UPO

The teaching course is divided into two parts, one concerning the structure and function of biomolecules and the second one concerning micronutrients and macronutrients, with the description of their assimilation and biosynthesis pathways.

Biochimica della Nutrizione – Leuzzi, Bellocco, Barreca – Ed Zanichelli 2013.
Biochemistry 9th Edition Campbell, Farrel, McDougal.
Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease. Catharine Ross Ed11Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2014.

The course provides the students with a deepening of the fundamentals of the biochemical discipline acquired during the first level degree, with particular attention to the structure-function relationships of the biological macromolecules involved in nutrition.

Knowledge of the principles of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Lectures/seminars and molecular visualization by using the program Pymol.

Ongoing learning control is carried out through periodic tests provided to students with classroom discussion.

Oral exam: three questions for which it is required to describe in detail the steps of the biochemical reactions. Excellence means that the student should have a critical approach in describing
the correlations between the different biochemical and nutritional processes.

Carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids, peptides, folding. Proteins, enzymes, structure determination. Micronutrients, vitamins and coenzymes. Digestion and absorption of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins. Metabolic correlations. Biochemical processes of the gut microbiota.

The expected results are: i) detailed knowledge of the chemistry and reactivity of the biological macromolecules; ii) learning the basic principles of the structure-function relationship applied to proteins and enzymes. Good command of the terminology of biochemistry.