39312 - Clinical Pathology Tecniques 2 (CE)

Learning outcomes

The student will have the fundamentals for performing a critical evaluation of the main diagnostic laboratory techniques in molecular diagnostics of cancer.

Course contents

• Molecular genetics of cancer.
• Collection, fixation and storage of blood and tissue samples.
• Nucleic acid extraction, quantification and quality control.
• Basic and advanced molecular techniques: cDNA synthesis, PCR, real-time PCR, digital PCR, Sanger sequencing, FISH, expression arrays, SNP arrays.
• Next-generation sequencing: targeted, whole exome, whole transcriptome, whole genome sequencing. Technical differences between different NGS technologies.
• Application of molecular technologies to diagnose mutations, amplifications, deletions and rearrangements of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes.
• Isolation of circulating tumor DNA and liquid biopsy.
• Critical interpretation of results.
• Bioinformatics methods, databases, and tools for mutation calling and classification.

Readings/Bibliography

Teaching materials are available on the virtuale.unibo.it platform (presentations and explanatory videos).

Teaching methods

The course will be conducted through lectures supported by slides and group discussions of clinical cases .

Assessment methods

The final exam will be an oral test with two questions; the final assessment will take into consideration language accuracy (max 3/30), speech structure (max 5/30), depth of knowledge (max 18/30), and the ability to re-elaborate it (max 5/30). The final grade will be weighted with those achieved in the integrated course.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible ( [https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students]) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

Slides, scientific literature, videos

Office hours

See the website of Annalisa Astolfi