C7640 - CHIMICA E PROPEDEUTICA BIOCHIMICA

Learning outcomes

The course Chemistry and Introductory Biochemistry is designed to provide students with the fundamental knowledge required to understand the basic principles governing matter and its transformations, with particular emphasis on biological phenomena at the atomic and molecular levels and their relevance to biomedical applications.

The course is organized into eight teaching units:

• Teaching Unit 1. Atomic Structure, Chemical Bonding, States of Matter and Thermodynamics of Open Systems (1 ECTS credit)

• Teaching Unit 2. Mixtures, Solutions and Colligative Properties of Solutions (1 ECTS credit)

• Teaching Unit 3. Chemical Reactions in Living Organisms: General Principles, Chemical Kinetics and Chemical Equilibrium (0.5 ECTS credits)

• Teaching Unit 4. Acids, Bases, Salts, pH, Buffer Solutions, Oxidation–Reduction Reactions and Electrochemistry (1 ECTS credit)

• Teaching Unit 5. Properties of Carbon and Reactivity of Organic Compounds: Hydrocarbons, Alkyl Halides, Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Their Derivatives (0.5 ECTS credits)

• Teaching Unit 6. Functional Groups and Isomerism: Alcohols, Phenols, Ethers, Thiols and Thioethers; Aldehydes and Ketones; Carboxylic Acids and Their Derivatives; Amines and Amides (1 ECTS credit)

• Teaching Unit 7. Amino Acids and Proteins, Carbohydrates, Lipids, Nucleotides, Polynucleotides and Nucleic Acids (1 ECTS credit) 

The specific learning objectives of the course will be detailed in the Web Course Guides, in accordance with Ministerial Decree No. 914/2026 [Decree 941].

Course contents

Teaching Unit 1. Atomic Structure, Chemical Bonding, States of Matter and Thermodynamics of Open Systems (1 ECTS credit)

Students should be able to describe and interpret:

• The composition of matter. Fundamentals of atomic theory. Atomic structure: protons, neutrons, and electrons. Atomic number and mass number. Isotopes. Basic principles of the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei as the foundation of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) diagnostic imaging.
• Quantum numbers, atomic orbitals, the Pauli exclusion principle, and Hund's rule. Electronic configuration, with particular reference to the elements most commonly found in living organisms.
• The periodic table of the elements. Periodic properties: valence electron configuration, atomic radius, ionization energy, electron affinity, and electronegativity. The octet rule.
• Molecules, ions, and polyatomic ions. Molecular mass. Definition of the mole and Avogadro's number. Atomic mass unit and molecular mass.
• Chemical bonding. Bonding orbitals. Covalent bonding: nonpolar covalent, polar covalent, and coordinate (dative) bonds. Basic concepts of metallic bonding. Ionic bonding. Orbital hybridization (sp, sp², sp³). Sigma (σ) and pi (π) molecular orbitals. Bond length and bond energy. Bond angle and molecular geometry. Examples of biologically relevant polar and nonpolar molecules.
• Weak intermolecular interactions (hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces) and hydrophobic interactions.
• Oxidation number. Examples of structural formulas and nomenclature of biologically relevant binary and ternary compounds containing carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus (oxides, hydroxides, peroxides, acids, bases, and salts).
• Fundamentals of the solid state: ionic, molecular, covalent, and metallic solids.
• The gaseous state. Absolute temperature. Boyle's, Charles's, and Gay-Lussac's laws. Application of the gas laws to respiration. Ideal gas equation. Basic concepts of the kinetic theory of gases and the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
• The liquid state: boiling, heat of vaporization, and surface tension. Gas-liquid equilibrium and vapor pressure. Comparison of the phase diagrams of water and carbon dioxide. Biomedical relevance of phase transitions, including sweat evaporation and thermoregulation.
• Principles of thermodynamics and bioenergetics. Definition of state functions. Enthalpy. Exothermic and endothermic processes, including phase transitions. Entropy. Gibbs free energy. Exergonic and endergonic processes. Changes in Gibbs free energy as a criterion for spontaneity and equilibrium in open systems.

 

Teaching Unit 2. Mixtures, Solutions and Colligative Properties of Solutions (1 ECTS credit)

Students should be able to describe and interpret:

• Homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures of biological interest: solutions, suspensions, colloids, and aerosols.
• Gaseous, liquid, and solid solutions.
• Water as a polar solvent. Solubility of ionic and non-ionic solutes. Properties of electrolytes. Electrolytes in biological fluids. Solubility of gases in liquids: Henry's law.
• Units used to express solution concentration: weight/weight, weight/volume, and volume/volume percentages; molarity, molality, and mole fraction. Basic concepts of non-ideal solutions, including solute behavior in the intracellular environment and the activity coefficient. The concept of equivalents in biomedical sciences.
• Concentration of gases in mixtures: Dalton's law. Atmospheric air and its composition. Inspired and expired air.
• Definition of colligative properties. Solvent-solute interactions. Raoult's law. Vapor pressure lowering. Boiling point elevation. Freezing point depression. Osmotic pressure and transport of solutes across biological membranes.
• Electrolyte solutions and the van't Hoff correction factor. Diffusion, osmosis, osmolarity, and osmolality. Comparison of the osmotic properties of solutions.
• Osmotic pressure of intracellular and extracellular fluids. Isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic solutions. Physiological saline and glucose solutions. Examples of the physiological and pathological consequences of osmotic imbalance, including hemolysis and edema.

 

Teaching Unit 3. Chemical Reactions in Living Organisms: General Principles, Chemical Kinetics and Chemical Equilibrium (0.5 ECTS credits)

Students should be able to describe and interpret:

• Definitions and characteristics of chemical reactions. Conservation of mass, energy, and electric charge. Balancing chemical equations.
• Fundamentals of chemical kinetics. Multistep reactions. Factors affecting reaction rates. Reaction order and molecularity. Arrhenius equation and collision theory. Activation energy. Transition state theory.
• Definition of catalysts, with particular reference to biological catalysts (enzymes).
• Chemical equilibrium. Reversible and irreversible reactions. Equilibrium constant and the law of mass action. Relationship between Gibbs free energy and chemical equilibrium.
• Differences between chemical equilibrium and the steady state. Le Châtelier's principle. Reaction quotient. Effect of temperature on the equilibrium constant. Multiple equilibria. Examples of heterogeneous solid-liquid equilibria, including urate precipitation. Solubility product and the common-ion effect. Biomedical examples, including kidney stone formation.

 

Teaching Unit 4. Acids, Bases, Salts, pH, Buffer Solutions, Oxidation–Reduction Reactions and Electrochemistry (1 ECTS credit)

Students should be able to describe and interpret:

• The Arrhenius theory of acids and bases. The Brønsted–Lowry theory. Basic concepts of the Lewis theory. The self-ionization of water. The ionic product of water (Kw). The concepts of pH and pOH. Acid and base dissociation constants (Ka and Kb). Strong and weak acids and bases. pKa and pKb values. Acid–base indicators. Calculation of the pH of strong and weak acid/base solutions. Polyprotic acids and polybasic bases. Acid–base reactions. Salts and their acidic or basic behavior in aqueous solution. The relationship between solubility and pH, with biomedical examples including calcium oxalate, calcium phosphate, and sodium urate.
• Buffer solutions. Examples of weak acid and weak base buffer systems. The Henderson–Hasselbalch equation. Buffer capacity and efficiency.
• Acid–base balance in biological fluids. Blood pH and physiological buffer systems. The carbonic acid (CO₂)/bicarbonate buffer, the dihydrogen phosphate/hydrogen phosphate buffer, and proteins as biological buffers. Physiological and biomedical significance of buffer systems, including acidosis and alkalosis.
• Oxidation–reduction (redox) reactions. Galvanic cells and the definitions of anode and cathode. Half-reactions and standard reduction potentials. The Nernst equation. Relationship between Gibbs free energy change and cell potential. Spontaneous redox reactions and chemical work. Examples of biologically relevant redox reactions. Oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor: thermodynamic balance of cellular respiration. The Fenton and Haber–Weiss reactions as examples of non-enzymatic oxygen redox reactions involving iron ions and leading to the formation of hydroxyl radicals.

 

Teaching Unit 5. Properties of Carbon and Reactivity of Organic Compounds: Hydrocarbons, Alkyl Halides, Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Their Derivatives (0.5 ECTS credits)

Students should be able to describe and interpret:

• Properties and hybridization of carbon. Representation of organic compounds. Saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons, cyclic and heterocyclic compounds. General principles of IUPAC nomenclature.
• Stereochemistry: diastereomers, enantiomers, epimers, and racemic mixtures. Basic concepts of the Cahn–Ingold–Prelog priority rules and the R/S nomenclature. Specific optical rotation. Dextrorotatory and levorotatory conventions. Fischer projection formulas.
• Homolytic bond cleavage and free radical reactions.
• Heterolytic bond cleavage. Carbocations and carbanions and their stability. Inductive effects: electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents. Electron delocalization. Biologically relevant nucleophiles and electrophiles. Nucleophilic substitution reactions (SN1 and SN2 mechanisms) and elimination reactions.
• Alkanes and cycloalkanes: structure, nomenclature, physicochemical properties, and biomedical relevance. Ring strain in cycloalkanes. Oxidation reactions.
• Alkenes: structure, nomenclature, physicochemical properties, and biomedical relevance. Electron delocalization and conjugated dienes. Electrophilic addition reactions.
• Aromatic hydrocarbons: structure, nomenclature, physicochemical properties, and biomedical relevance. Benzene, heteroaromatic compounds (pyrimidines), and polycyclic aromatic compounds (purines). Hückel's rule. Fundamentals of electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions in benzene derivatives. Activating and deactivating substituents. Toxicity of aromatic compounds.

Teaching Unit 6. Functional Groups and Isomerism: Alcohols, Phenols, Ethers, Thiols and Thioethers; Aldehydes and Ketones; Carboxylic Acids and Their Derivatives; Amines and Amides (1 ECTS credit)

Students should be able to describe and interpret:

• Alcohols and thiols: structure, nomenclature, physicochemical properties, and biological relevance. Reactions including dehydration, oxidation, and nucleophilic substitution. Ethanol. Phenol and its derivatives: acidity of phenol. Examples of biologically relevant alcohols and thiols. Ethers and thioethers. Epoxides.
• Amines: structure, nomenclature, physicochemical properties, and biomedical relevance. Basicity and nucleophilicity. Reactions including alkylation and salt formation. Nitrosamines. Choline and other biologically relevant amines.
• Aldehydes and ketones: structure, nomenclature, physicochemical properties, and biological relevance. Reactions including oxidation, reduction, nucleophilic addition, and aldol condensation. Hemiacetals and hemiketals, acetals and ketals, imines (Schiff bases). Properties of α-hydrogen atoms adjacent to the carbonyl group. Keto–enol tautomerism and its biological significance, with examples including urate, cytosine, and phosphoenolpyruvate. Quinones and hydroquinones, with particular reference to ubiquinone and its role as an electron carrier.
• Carboxylic acids and their biologically relevant derivatives (acid anhydrides, esters, thioesters, amides, and acyl phosphates): structure, nomenclature, physicochemical properties, and acidity. Reactions with biological examples, including salt formation, decarboxylation, nucleophilic acyl substitution, Fischer esterification, ester hydrolysis and transesterification, Claisen condensation of esters and thioesters, lactone formation, decarboxylation of keto acids, and amide hydrolysis.

 

Teaching Unit 7. Amino Acids and Proteins, Carbohydrates, Lipids, Nucleotides, Polynucleotides and Nucleic Acids (1 ECTS credit)

Students should be able to describe and interpret:

• Amino acids: structure, nomenclature, and standard abbreviations. Classification according to the chemical properties of their side chains. Identification and characteristics of the side chains of proteinogenic amino acids. Stereochemistry of amino acids and their representation using Fischer projections. Acid–base properties and the isoelectric point. Essential and non-essential amino acids.
• The peptide bond: formation through the reaction between the carboxyl group of one amino acid and the amino group of another amino acid. Structural and chemical properties of the peptide bond. Levels of protein organization: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structure. Weak intermolecular interactions and disulfide bonds involved in protein folding and stability.
• Carbohydrates: structure, nomenclature, and stereochemistry. Monosaccharides: isomers, epimers, anomers, and tautomers. Cyclization of monosaccharides. Mutarotation. Reactions of monosaccharides including oxidation, reduction, the Maillard reaction and Amadori products, and condensation reactions. The glycosidic bond. Disaccharides. Oligosaccharides and their derivatives. Amino sugars. Polysaccharides: homopolysaccharides (starch, cellulose, and glycogen) and heteropolysaccharides (glycosaminoglycans).
• Lipids: saturated and unsaturated fatty acids: structure, nomenclature, physical properties, and chemical reactions. Triglycerides and their biological functions: fats and oils. Complex lipids, including glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, and glycolipids. Cholesterol and an overview of its biologically important derivatives, including steroid hormones, bile acids, and vitamin D.
• Nitrogenous bases, nucleosides, and nucleotides: structure and nomenclature. Biological significance of ATP. Dinucleotides in biological oxidation–reduction reactions (NAD⁺/NADH and FAD/FAD₂).
• The phosphodiester bond and the structure of nucleic acids: DNA and RNA.
• Non-enzymatic modifications of biological macromolecules. Cytosine deamination. Major reactions of the hydroxyl radical with lipids, proteins, and DNA. Non-enzymatic antioxidant activity of thiols (glutathione) and molecules containing conjugated double bonds (tocopherols and carotenoids).

Readings/Bibliography

- FA Bettelheim et al; Chimica e Propedeutica biochimica, Edises.

- T Bellini; Chimica Medica e Propedeutica Biochimica, Zanichelli.

- L Binaglia & B Giardina; Chimica e Propedeutica Biochimica, McGrawHill.

- KJ Denniston et al; Chimica Generale, Chimica Organica, Propedeutica Biochimica, McGrawHill

- S. Marini et al; Chimica e Propedeutica Biochimica, Piccin.

Teaching methods

The lectures will be held as specified in the dedicated Section: [https://corsi.unibo.it/magistralecu/MedicinaChirurgia/il-semestre-aperto-come-si-svolge] (website in italian only).

Assessment methods

As per Ministerial Decree no. 941 [https://www.mur.gov.it/it/atti-e-normativa/decreto-ministeriale-n-941-del-10-7-2026] (website in Italain only)

The exam for each course in the filter semester will be a written exam (lasting 50 minutes, with a 30-minute break between tests) with 31 questions divided into:

• 21 multiple-choice questions with 5 answer choices, only one of which is correct;

• 10 fill-in-the-blank questions.

The exam is scored as follows:

• 1 point for each correct answer

• 0 points for each omitted answer

• minus 0.1 (- 0.1) points for each incorrect answer.

The exam is passed with a grade of 18. The maximum grade is 31.

The exams are the same throughout Italy and take place simultaneously.

The student has two exam sessions available for each course (the first within the first 15 days of December 2026 and the second within the first 15 days of January 2027, as per Ministerial Decree no. 941 [https://www.mur.gov.it/it/atti-e-normativa/decreto-ministeriale-n-941-del-10-7-2026] (website in Italian only).

Teaching tools

The teaching materials will be made available directly within the Zoom space used for participation.

Office hours

See the website of Michele Di Foggia

See the website of Paola Taddei

See the website of Antonello Lorenzini

See the website of Silvia Cetrullo