Ateneo - UPO

Extracellular signals and membrane receptors. Signal transduction pathways. Transcriptional and translational regulation.
Introduction to Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and its applications.
Discussion about scientific papers about topics related to the course.

Lodish, Berk, Zipursky, Matsudaria, Baltimore e Darnell. Molecolar Cell Biology. Freeman & Co, New York. Alberts, Johnson, Lewis, Morgan, Raff, Roberts, Walter. Molecular biology of the cell. 7th edition.

Study of molecular mechanisms of signal transduction and of transcriptional and translational regulation. Introduction to bioinformatics approaches.

Molecular Biology I, Biochemistry, Genetics

Class lessons, discussion of scientific articles.

Learning control: discussion of the topics and questions during lectures

The exam consists of an oral test with
multiple questions about main topics of the lessons. During the test, the use of texts or notes is not allowed.

DNA, chromosomes, and genomes. the structure and function of DNA; chromosomal DNA and its packaging in the chromatin fiber; chromatin structure and function; the global structure of chromosomes; how genome evolve; DNA replication, repair, and recombination; DNA replication mechanisms; DNA repair; homologous recombination; the versatility of RNA; from DNA to RNA; from RNA to ptotein; the RNA world and the origins of life.
Cell signaling; principles of cell signaling; signaling through G-protein-coupled receptors; signaling through enzyme-coupled receptors; alternative signaling routes in gene regulation; signaling in plants. Cancer as a microevolutionary process; cancer-critical genes: how they are found and what they do; molecular biology of cancer; invasion and metastasis; focus on RAS proteins; molecular pathways in colon and lung adenocarcinoma. Liquid biopsy and circulating DNA (cfDNA and ctDNA).
analyzing and manipulating DNA: the past and the future. DNA sequencing: general principles plus the assorted overall approaches used to sequence DNA; Sanger sequencing; next generation sequencing (NGS), Illumina and Ion Torrent technologies; third generation sequencing technologies; transcriptome analysis with sequencing; the genome editing revolution; ZFN, TALEN, and CRISPR/Cas-based methods for genome engineering.
Regulation of gene expression by noncoding RNAs; transcriptional regulation in prokaryotes; transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes; regulatory RNAs; gene regulation in development and evolution; antisense RNA: selective gene inactivation.
Recommendations for molecular biology lab organization.

Knowledge of main pathways of signal transduction and of post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression.
Knowledge of Next generation sequencing (NGS) techniques and applications. Knowledge of methodologies to analyze NGS data. It is not required to be able to analyze data.