- Docente: Gastone Castellani
- Credits: 6
- SSD: FIS/07
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Physics (cod. 9245)
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course the student will acquire a general picture of modern Biology and related problems. He/she will be able to determine the various levels of complexity of biological systems, as well as use physical and quantitative tools aimed at tackling the “systemic” aspects of Biology (Systems Biology), with emphasis on Immune and Neural Systems (Learning and Memory). The students will learn some experimental techniques for: - the study of biological systems, such as electrophysiology, cellular and subcellular imaging; - large scale analysis of gene expression data (Big Biological Data) aimed to build multiscale predictive models of biological functions.
Course contents
Basic of Biological Systems
Cell Chemistry, Biomolecules and introductory biochemistry.
Organelles, Cells, Tissues, Organs and Systems.
Systems Biology and Systems Medicine
Deterministic modeling of Biological Systems
Law of Mass Action and Chemical Kinetics
Enzymatic kinetics and Receptor-ligand interactions
Cooperativity and nonlinearity
Introduction to "omic" techniques and relation with Big Biological Data
Ecological modeling
Stochastic Modeling: the Chemical Master Equation (CME)
Numerical methods for solving the CME
The stationary distribution and relation with other probability distribution
Thermodinamic connections (Detailed Balance)
Electrical properties of cells and tissues
Nernst-Planck equation and electrochemical equilibrium
The nervous system
The ion channels and the patch clamp techniques
Hodgkin and Huxley model
neural networks and learning rules
Readings/Bibliography
Lecture notes
Cellular Biophysics Weiss MIT Press
Teaching methods
Slides and blackboard
Assessment methods
Project
Oral exam
Teaching tools
Practical work on PC and visit to the lab
Office hours
See the website of Gastone Castellani