CODE 80755 ACADEMIC YEAR 2024/2025 CREDITS 6 cfu anno 1 BIOTECNOLOGIE 8756 (L-2) - GENOVA SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINARY SECTOR BIO/13 LANGUAGE Italian TEACHING LOCATION GENOVA SEMESTER 1° Semester MODULES Questo insegnamento è un modulo di: BIOLOGY AND GENETICS TEACHING MATERIALS AULAWEB OVERVIEW This course provides a basic outline of the principles of modern biology and genetics in the context of evolution. It focuses on the main molecular and cellular mechanisms that are involved in life sciences emphasising the mechanisms at the base of the main biological processes such as the molecular basis of heredity. AIMS AND CONTENT LEARNING OUTCOMES This module will provide the basic knowledge about biology that is required to understand biotechnology concepts and techniques for productive purposes. The aim of the course is to place the main biological processes within a setting that allows biotechnologists to take advantage of their potential and translate knowledge into biotech products. AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES Upon completion of the course, students should be able to recognize and describe genetic phenomena and demonstrate knowledge of: - How to study life - Cellular and subcellular structures and functions - Structure and function of genetic material - Gene expression and its regulation. TEACHING METHODS Lectures and exercises. Any Student with documented Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), or with any special needs, should contact the Lecturer(s) and to the dedicated SLD Representative in the Department before class begins, in order to liaise and arrange the specific teaching methods so that the learning aims and outcomes may be met. SYLLABUS/CONTENT 1: How to study life 2: Biotechnology 3: Scientific methods and literature 4: The origin of life 5: Cell theory 1 6: Seminar 7: Cell Membrane 8: Chromosomes 9: Cell cycle and cell division 10: From mendelian to modern genetics 11: Origin and development of Molecular Biology 12: From DNA to Proteins, from genotype to phenotype 13: Eukaryotic genome and its expression 14: Recombinant DNA and Biotechnology 15 Genome sequencing, molecular biology and the origin of molecular medicine 16: Developmental biology 17: The history of life on earth 18: Evolutionary mechanisms 19: The origin of species and the evolution of genomes 20: Procaryotes 21: Origin and diversification of Eukaryotes 22: Phylogenesis 23: The origin of animals and their body plan 24: Seminar RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY Sadawa, Heller, Orians, Purves, Hillis - Principi di Biologia. Ed. Zanichelli. TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD ALDO PAGANO Ricevimento: Scheduling an appointment (aldo.pagano@unige.it, Tel: 010-5558213) PAOLO GIANNONI Ricevimento: Office hours for students are normally set on Tuesdays from 09:00 to 11:00. The office address is: Biology Section, Dept. Experimental medicine, Via Pastore 3 (C.so Europa 30), second floor. E-mail appointments are strongly encouraged. The teacher's e mail address is the following: paolo.giannoni@unige.it. Alternatively the teacher can be reached at the following phone number: 01035338201. On-line remote interviews can also be agreed, upon specific request. LESSONS LESSONS START I semester, in October. Class schedule The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy EXAMS EXAM DESCRIPTION Information on the structure of the exam. The written exam of the teaching of Biology and Genetics for Biotechnology consists of two parts: a FIRST PART takes place the multiple choice quiz relating to the subject of Biology and a SECOND PART which consists of a similar multiple choice quiz relating to the subject of Genetics. The two quizzes will be administered in sequence starting from the time of activation of the exam. Each quiz, one for each subject, consists of 15 multiple choice QUESTIONS. Each question is worth 2 (TWO) points; ONE of the questions (which will be clearly indicated) will have a value of 3 (THREE) points, to ensure that the sum of the points of the correct answers exceeds thirty / thirty and allows for the achievement of honors. There are NO negative scores for wrong answers so you should NOT leave unanswered questions. ONLY ONE answer is the correct one. Obviously questions left unanswered are considered WRONG. The student does NOT have the possibility to go back and review / modify the answers given to the previous questions once the answer to each question has been sent. Furthermore, the student has ONLY ONE ATTEMPT to complete each quiz. The time of each quiz is limited to 15 minutes. This means that if you take 13 minutes to answer the first question, there will only be 2 minutes left to answer all other remaining questions related to that subject. At the end of the time, all the answers given will be saved until the time available. The minimum mark for achieving sufficiency, relating to each subject / module, is 18 (eighteen) points, or having correctly answered at least 9 (nine) questions. The overall mark for the teaching of Biology and Genetics will be given by the average of the individual marks obtained for each subject / module. The quizzes are ordered in a temporal sense: first the Biology subject will be carried out, then Genetics. Who should finish BEFORE the time expires or SHOULD CARRY OUT THE EXAM ONLY RELATING TO A SINGLE SUBJECT (if equipped with regular validation) MUST wait for the duration of the part in progress - or the one that he / she must NOT carry out - until its natural conclusion and then access the remaining part of the exam. ATTENTION: you CANNOT go back to change and / or review the previous answers and at the end of each quiz you MUST click on the SEND ALL AND FINISH button. Integrative Oral Exam If the student has obtained a mark in the written exam of 17/30 (seventeen / thirtieths), or equal to or greater than 27/30 (twenty-seven / thirtieths), he can request a compensatory and supplementary oral test to try to improve the mark obtained in writing (i.e. the achievement of suffcience or that of an improved vote). ASSESSMENT METHODS For both courses of the two modules, the written exams focus on all the topics covered in class and are therefore aimed at verifying students' learning of the entire program. The types of questions presented in the exam text are varied and include references to specific terminology for each course, provide for comparisons and logical connections, priority analysis, consequential and importance assessments. Sometimes they contain images aimed at focusing the examiner's attention on a particular aspect of the subject on which the question is concerned. With this type of assessment, therefore, an attempt is made to examine more aspects of the cognitive abilities of students in relation to the subjects in question. To pass the exam, the student must report a grade of not less than 18/30 (eighteen / thirty) proving that he knows: (for the Biology Module): - The scientific method of investigation of the living, cell theory, the origins of life and the structure of the main components of cells - The main biological processes such as cell division, DNA structure and its role in heredity, describing the experimental approaches used in major scientific discoveries. - The concepts of genotype and phenotype by deepening the peculiar aspects of the genomes and the fundamental stages of the development of molecular biology - The principles of living beings, both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and the evolutionary mechanisms that have allowed their speciation and differentiation; (for the Genetics Module): - The general bases of heredity with particular attention to those of man - The principles of molecular genetics that are the basis of Mendelian characters and diseases - The mechanisms underlying and the consequences of mutations genic. -The main applications in the biomedical and biotechnological fields of modern molecular genetics and genomics techniques. In any additive oral tests: -These are always conducted by the owner and by another tenured professor with many years of experience (only in exceptional cases the second component can be a post-graduate research fellow with at least 5 years of experience) and has a duration of at least 30 minutes (typically 45 minutes). With these modalities, given the many years of exams experience in the discipline, the commission is able to verify with high accuracy the achievement of the educational objectives of the teaching. When these are not reached, the student is invited to deepen the study and to make use of further explanations by the lecturer. FURTHER INFORMATION All the topics covered in class can be found in the ”aula web” slides. Any other, more in-depth material is mentioned at the end of the lesson and can be found in the “aula web” slides. https://www.biotecnologie.aulaweb.unige.it