AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Attendance and participation in the planned educational activities (lectures and exercises in small groups) will allow the student to acquire confidence with the representation and the expected chemical reactivity of inorganic and organic compounds of medical interest. Starting from the strong or weak interactions that can occur between ions or between different types of molecules, the course considers the properties of aqueos solutions of these compunds, the calculation and of the pH of specific solutions containing acids, bases,salts and buffers, the basis of redox reactions, the reactivity of different functional chemical groups, the traditional and scientific nomenclature of organic molecules, the stereochemistry of asymmetric molecules, the peculiar properties of aromatic compounds and the three-dimensional organization of monomeric and polymeric structures belonging to carbohydrate, lipid, protein and nucleotide classes. Each topics is shaped to fulfill the peculiar needs of  knowledge required to understand how the alteration of the composition of an aqueos solution or changes in the molecular structure of organic compunds that are involved in intracellular phenomena can interfere with biochemical and physiological mechanisms. Hence this class is preparatory to facilitate the understanding of various subsequent branches of knowledge characteristic of this academic course for physicians. 

TEACHING METHODS

Teaching is performed by classroom-taught lessons with the aid of slides and through the constant use of the "visual presenter" for the writing of molecular structures and reactions. 
The teaching is held through lessons  in the classroom with the support of projected images . The material is made available to students in Aulaweb at the end of each lesson.To complete the morning lessons, the students, divided into four groups of about 60 students each, carry out numerical exercises and chemical reactions together with the teachers to self-assess their degree of basic knowledge and practical resolution of the problems posed. These exercises enable the student to solve the problems they will find in the written test of the final exam. 

Due to the Covid-19 health emergency, during the first semester of the Academic Year 2020-2021 both the frontal lessons and the exercises will be carried out remotely using the Office 365 Teams Platform.
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SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Aqueous solutions and gas. Quantification of the concentration of solutions, colligative properties. Kynetics, thermodynamics, equilibria, Kc, Q, Kps,Kw, pH. Strong and weaks acids and bases, buffers. Hybridization of the carbon atom in different organic compounds. Hydrocarbons (alkanes and alkenes), chirality, resonance, combustion, redox potential,  redox reactions. Alchols, thiols, properties of the carbonylic group, tautomery. Carboxylic acids, esters, anhydrides, amines, amides. Polifunctional molecules, hydroxyl and ketoacids, amino acids and peptides, post-translational modifications of amino acids inthe proteins. Monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides. Lipids: fatty acids, triacylglycerols, glycerolipids and sphingolipids, cholesterol. Omo ed eterocyclic aromatic compounds. Purine and pyrimidine bases, nucleosides, nucleotides, polynucleotides. Coenzymes of oxidoreduttases (NAD, NADP, FAD).

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

All slides used during the lessons and other educational material will be available on AulaWeb at the end of each cycle of lectures / laboratory exercises along with other bibliographic material in pdf format.

The books indicated are suggested as a supporting text and are available and can be consulted together with other books for further information by the teacher.

Texts advised for further information:                                                                                                                                              Brady, Holum-Fondamenti di Chimica-Ed. Zanichelli
Brown, Poon-Introduzione alla Chimica Organica con modelli molecolari-EDISES
Bettelheim, Brown, Campbell, Farrel-Chimica e Propedeutica Biochimica-EDISES