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C8703 - QUANTITATIVE BIOLOGY

Academic Year 2026/2027

                
                        Docente:
                        Alberto Danielli
                    
                        Credits:
                        6
                    
                        SSD:
                        BIOS-08/A
                    
                        Language:
                        English
                    
                        Teaching Mode:
                        In-person learning (entirely or partially)
                        
                            Campus:
                            Bologna
                        
                            Corso:
                            Second cycle degree programme (LM) in
                            Molecular and Computational Biology (cod. 6254)

                                    Course Timetable
                                
from Oct 16, 2026 to Jan 20, 2027

Learning outcomes

Modern biology places great value on centralized, curated quantitative data. Trying to explain why biological numbers have certain values is itself a propeller of discovery. The overarching goal of this course is to provide students with a solid biological numerancy in molecular life sciences. The course represents an entry point to explore key numbers and orders-of-magnitude in the principal molecular processes of cells. Students will be confronted with sizes, concentrations, rates, durations, energies, forces and errors in cellular pathways and in the central dogma of biology, to successfully reason out the biological repercussions of those values

Course contents

The Path to Biological Numeracy. Rigorous Rules for sloppy calculations. Sizes of Biological Informational molecules. Cell atlas: range of organelle size and cell and shapes. Concentrations and absolute numbers. Energies and Forces. Rates and durations in the life cycle of cells. Biological information and errors: genomes and mutations. Quantitative Miscellany in the central dogma of molecular biology. Principles of systems biology. Regulatory motifs and circuits. Filtering and leveraging noise in gene expression.

Readings/Bibliography

Milo & Phillips. Cell Biology by the Numbers. Freely available from bionumbers.org

Uri Alon. An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits (2nd edition). CRC Press.

Teaching methods

Introductory lessons to principal themes

Estimates and exercizes to train biological numeracy

Problem posing and solving sessions, student workgroups, flipped classroom approaches, active learning exercises

Summarizing powerpoint presentations

Assessment methods

Written examination, including several exercizes

With regard to the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the examination, the use of AI is prohibited. Any use constitutes a breach of academic integrity.

SERVICE FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES AND SLD

Students with specific learning difficulties (SLD) or temporary or permanent disabilities: please contact the relevant University Office in good time (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it). The office will be responsible for proposing any necessary adjustments to the students concerned; these must, however, be submitted for approval by the lecturer at least 15 days in advance, and the lecturer will assess their suitability, taking into account the course’s learning objectives.

Students recognized as “working students”
Please consult the dedicated website (https://www.unibo.it/en/study/guide-to-choosing-your-programme/balancing-study-and-work) to apply for this status and to learn about the available measures.

Teaching tools

White/blackboard

Powerpoint presentations

Back-of-the-envelope calculations

Exercizes

Office hours

See the website of Alberto Danielli