Fundaments of Neurobiology and Genetics
PROF. ROBERTO COLOMBO
COURSE AIMS
– To introduce the student to the study and research methodologies of biological
and medical sciences, through the examination of certain conceptual,
experimental and clinical questions of particular relevance.
– To provide the basic elements to understand at the molecular, cellular,
physiological and pathological level the fundamental neurobiological and
genetic processes that govern the generation, development and death of the
human organism.
COURSE CONTENT
1. The study of living nature. The experimental method in biomedical sciences:
development, need and limits.
2. The life cycle: reproduction, development, homeostasis, senescence and death.
3. The organisation levels and the fundamental processes of the living.
– The cell and the cellular theory. Structure elements of the eukaryote cell.
Cellular cycle and division. Mitosis and meiosis.
– Cells of the nervous system: classification and morphology. The cellular
structure of the neuron: soma, dendrites and axons. Morphological and
functional classification of the neurons of the central and peripheral nervous
systems. Structure and function of glia cells (microglia and macroglia):
astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, precursor oligodendrocytes, ependymal cells,
radial glia, NG2 expressed glia, Schwann cells and satellite cells.
– The cellular lines and their staminal and pre-differentiated precursors.
– Elements of human histology. The nervous tissue and its organisation.
– The organism, its organs and apparatuses.
– The molecular basis of the living organism. The bioorganic molecules:
structure, features and functions of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic
acids. Elemental, energetic and informational analysis.
– Metabolism and homeostasis: main catabolic and anabolic processes.
– Energy balance, body mass index, weight changes and obesity. Oral, enteral
and parenteral nutrition: medical and psychological aspects.
– Nature and the transmission of the nervous impulse. The electrical
transmission: membrane potentials, ionic channels and sodium potassium
pump, depolarisation and repolarisation. Synaptic transmission: synapses,
neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Neurotransmitters, drugs and mental
illnesses.
4. The transmission of hereditary characters.
– Chromosome theory of heredity. The euploid and anaeuploid human karyotype.
Chromosome illnesses.
– Genotype and phenotype. Mendel’s laws and autonome heredity. NonMendelian heredity.
– Gender determination and heterosomatous heredity.
– Molecular genetics: from the structure of nucleic acids to the maps of the
human genome.
– Replication, transcription and translation of genetic information. Regulation of
the expression of genes.
– Genes, environment and individual phenotype: genetic determinism and its
critics.
– The genetic study of cognitive and behavioural characters: methodological
aspects, perspectives and limits.
5. Evolution of the species and phylogenesis of Homo sapiens.
6. Reproduction and development.
– General characteristics of sexuality.
– The sexualisation process according to the Jost paradigm and its phases.
Genetic and hormonal control. Disorders of sexual differentiation: medical,
psychological and social aspects.
– Sexuality and reproduction in the human species: gametogenesis, fertilization,
development and implant of the embryo. Basic stages and processes of prenatal
and neonatal development.
– Fertility, sterility and techniques of assisted reproduction.
– Elements of human embryology: fundamental phases and processes of prenatal
and neonatal development.
7. Pathology: state of health and concept of illness. Aetiology and pathogenesis.
8.
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Ageing and death.
Cellular and organicistic ageing. The concept of senescence.
Cellular death: apoptosis and necrosis.
Death of the organism: biological complexities and levels of definition.
Human death: critical systems, criteria for ascertaining death and clinical tests.
Anthropological, psychological and legal aspects of thanatology.
READING LIST
Main recommended text
N.A. CAMPBELL-J.B. REECE, Biologia, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2004, 2nd ed.
The professor will indicate additional texts for certain parts of the program and other
bibliographical material during the first lecture of the course.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
The course will consist of lectures, which will outline the approach to the arguments and
will indicate a study method, and practical work, which will offer the possibility of a guided
application of the method to resolve certain biological problems and a way for the student to
check their personal understanding of the subject. The nature of the course and the teaching
method suggest a constant participation to lectures and practical work.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
The examination in ordinary exam sessions is usually oral. It includes, in its preliminary
stage a viewing and identification of certain karyology, cytological or histological images
obtained through optical and electronic microscopy or by the solution of problems of formal
genetics or of metabolism. These images are screened and commented during course
lectures and practical work.
Students who cannot attend the Course are invited to make contact with the lecturer in
order to agree a course of study suitable for sitting the exam.
NOTES
Further information can be found on the lecturer's webpage
http://www2.unicatt.it/unicattolica/docenti/index.html or on the Faculty notice board.
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