03553 - Medical Genetics

Academic Year 2013/2014

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Midwifery (cod. 8471)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the teaching module students will understand and be able to interpret family trees, the risk of recurrence and mode of transmission of hereditary diseases, and basic aspects of genetic counselling.

Course contents

Hereditary diseases: family trees, mendelian inheritance, recurrence risk, Hardy-Weinberg principle.
Mendelian disorders: autosomal dominant (achondroplasia, Huntington's chorea, osteogenesis imperfecta, Marfan syndrome), autosomal recessive (cystic fibrosis, phenylketonuria, galactosemia), X-linked (Duchenne's muscular dystrophy).
Exceptions and variations on mendelian inheritance: incomplete penetrance, variable expressivity, genetic heterogeneity, anticipation, germinal mosaicism, mitochondrial inheritance.
Complex diseases, genetic susceptibility to disease, gene-environment interactions, polymorphisms, familial aggregation, twin and adoption studies, association studies.
Hereditary cancer (retinoblastoma, breast and ovarian cancer).
Chromosomal abnormalities and cytogenetics: aneuploidy, structural rearrangements, chromosome banding, FISH.
Clinical genetics: genetic counselling, molecular diagnostics.

Readings/Bibliography

Genetica Medica Pratica. Giuseppe Novelli e Emiliano Giardina. Aracne, 2003.

Genetica in Medicina. Thompson & Thompson. Edizione italiana a cura di Achile Iolascon e Paolo Gaparini, Edilson & Gnocchi, 2005.

Teaching methods

Lectures with Power Point presentations.

Assessment methods

Oral exam on the contents of the course.

Teaching tools

Powerpont presentations of all lectures will be made available to students.

Office hours

See the website of Kerry Jane Rhoden