B3162 - Metabolomics in Life Sciences

Learning outcomes

At the end of the courses, the student will be able to: 1. Demonstrate an understanding of the metabolism and metabolome of different biological systems; 2. Assess the challenges involved in studying the metabolome; 3. Develop an awareness of analytical techniques (NMR) and data analysis tools used in the study of the metabolome (chemometrics); 4. Become familiar with the main applications and approaches of metabolomics in different fields, from pharmaceuticals to medicine to public health.

Course contents

'Omics' Sciences: Genomics, Proteomics, and Metabolomics

Introduction to Metabolomics/Metabonomics

Analytical Approaches to Metabolomics and Applications to Systems Biology

Target and Untargeted metabolomics

NMR Based Metabolomics: in vitro NMR, ex vivo (High-resolution magic angle spinning NMR spectroscopy), in vivo (MRI)

The role of NMR-based metabolomics in cancer.

Metabolomics in preclinical pharmaceutical discovery and development.

NMR spectroscopy of body fluids as a metabolomics approach to inborn errors of metabolism.

Metabolic profiling: applications in plant science.

Applications of metabolomics within environmental toxicology.

Readings/Bibliography

Metabolomics for Biomedical Research

1st Edition - March 20, 2020

Editor: Jerzy Adamskiù

 

Teaching materials will be provided by the teacher: slides, scientific articles and useful links

Teaching methods

The course is divided into lectures (32 hours) held through the use of power points. Power Point support will be utilized during the lessons and a copy of it will be available for the Students.

Assessment methods

Verification of learning takes place through the preparation of a power point presentation (about 15 slides long) in which a scientific article on the topics covered in class is discussed.

Teaching tools

Projector, PC, overhead projector, Teams platform, Virtual Unibo

Office hours

See the website of Valeria Righi