65683 - Cell Biology

Learning outcomes

The student is expected to learn the following basic concepts:
-cellular theory: what it is, what are its bases
-prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell structure: what are the basic components, their size, the ways of studying it
-functions of the cell structures, with special emphasis on the structure-function relationships
-main cellular activities and the way they are regulated: gene regulation, protein synthesis, motility, communication and integration among cells in pluricellular organisms, differentiation, cell cycle and mitosis, cell death.
The student will learn also:
-to utilize text books, web pages suggested by the teacher and additional material supplied by the teacher to study (and to get a deeper insight on) the different topics of cell biology;
-to integrate the knowledge acquired in cell biology with those that will be acquired in the course of molecular biology;
-to study autonomously, in order to deepen the knowledge of some topics;
-to study critically, i.e. to compare the knowledge he/she will acquire within different frameworks, since for some sibjects more than a theory will be presented;
to have a quantitave approach, and to solve simple problems;
-to communicate his/her own knowledge with clarity.

Course contents

1- The genetic information and how it is utilized in the cell.

2- The eukaryotic cell: structure and function of cell organels. The nucleus. Modifications and sorting of proteins. Endoplasmic reticulm, the Golgi apparatus, lysosomes. Mithocondria and peroxisomes. The cytoskeleton and cell motility. The cell surface, membrane transportation, cell-to-cell interactions. Structure and function of some specialized cells: epithelial cells, nerve cells, muscle skeletal cells.

3- Cell regulation. Signals and their transduction. Signals in development and differentiation. Mitosis, cell cycle and its regulation. Apoptosis. Meiosis and fertilization (generalities). Concepts about cancer as a result of erroneus regulation of mitosis and apoptosis.

During the laboratory course, the student will learn: how to behave in a safe way in a laboratory; how to prepare acqueus solutions (including the necessary calculations); how to use the basic instruments of a biology lab, such as micropipettes, scales, centrifuges, spectrophotometer, optical microscopes (including phase contrast microscope), how to prepare blood slides (including blood smearing and staining); how to carry out simple experiments on osmosis, the preparation of density gradients and their use in the isolation of blood cells, cell counting, the separation of cellular organels and enzymatic assays.

Readings/Bibliography

One of the following is reccomended: 1) Becker, Kleinsmith, Hardin, Bertone Il mondo della cellula ed PEARSON; 2) Lewin, Cassimeris, Lingappa, Plopper, Cellule, ed Zanichelli; Karp Biologia cellulare e molecolare ed EDISES; 3) Pollard, Earnshaw, Biologia Cellulare, ed. Elsevier, Masson; Cooper Hausmann La cellula: un approccio molecolare ed Piccin; 4) Alberts e altri L'essenziale (Biologia molecolare della cellula) ed Zanichelli

Teaching methods

lessons
structured and guided laboratory exercitations

Assessment methods

The knowdlege will be verifyed (with a final written exam of 40 multiple choice questions). The student must acquired the following didactic goals:
- know the morphology of the cell, in particular the animal cell
- know the function of cell organels
- know the regulatory function of cell signals
- know the main cell activities, such as cell cycle, apoptosis, senescence, differentiation. 25 right answers correspond to a sufficient mark (18), 37 right answers correspond to 30. Errors will be discussed during the exam.

The laboratory ability, assessed during the training, will be reported in a written assay. Its contents will be discussed during the exam.

The final mark will be the average of the points obtained in Cell Biology and Anatomy (a cum laude grade will weight for 33/30 but, to obtain a final mark cum laude, both the partial exams must be passed with not less than 30).

Office hours

See the website of Monica Forni