APPLIED BIOCHEMISTRY
Learning outcomes of the course unit
The course aims at highlighting specific topics of advanced biochemisty that might be of interest to students of the Faculty of Pharmacy
Course contents summary
Part I: Biochemical techniques
Protein purification: centrifugation and chromatography. Electrophoresis. 2D electrophoresis and mass spectrometry.
Spectroscopy in biochemistry. Absorbtion spectroscopy, fluorescence, circular dichroism.
Enzyme assays. The steady state. Direct, indirect and coupled enzyme assays. Pre-steady state kinetics.
Immunochemical techniques. The antibodies (structure, conjugation). Production of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. Immunoassays: RIA and ELISA.
Recombinant DNA. Recombinant proteins. Recombinant proteins as drugs.
Protein structure determination. Structure and sequence databanks.
Computational methods for drug design.
Part II: Cellular
biochemistry
Membrane receptor
Singnal trsnduction pathways
Lipid hormons
Nuclear receptors
Misfolding diseseas
Blood substitutes
Examples of scientific projects on proteomics, enzyme catalysis, drug design.
Recommended readings
Material provided by the teacher
Berg, Tymoczko: “Stryer – Biochimica”, Zanichelli
Wilson e Walker: “Biochimica e Biologia Molecolare", Nuova edizione italiana. Cortina Editore.
G. Federici: “Medicina di laboratorio”, Edizione McGraw- Hill
Teaching methods
Frontal lectures
Assessment methods and criteria
Oral examination and scientific paper presentation
