Checking date: 13/07/2021


Course: 2021/2022

Biochemistry
(15538)
Bachelor in Biomedical Engineering (Plan: 419 - Estudio: 257)


Coordinating teacher: LARCHER LAGUZZI, FERNANDO

Department assigned to the subject: Bioengineering and Aeroespace Engineering Department

Type: Compulsory
ECTS Credits: 6.0 ECTS

Course:
Semester:




Requirements (Subjects that are assumed to be known)
Cell and Molecular Biology
Objectives
A Biomedical Engineer needs to integrate knowledge from different fields in order to analyze and solve problems in biology and medicine to provide an overall enhancement of health care. The human body is an elegant devise that requires inputs for sustained operation. The processes responsible for that input rely on proteins, the leitmotiv of biochemistry and the ultimate cell micro-machines. Students will partake of the excitement of understanding the complex problems of biochemistry. After being introduced to the fundamentals of Cell and Molecular Biology, Biochemistry students will become acquainted with multiple protein and enzyme functions. Students will get familiar with various state-of-the-art methodologies to analyze proteins and their modifications. We will make a strong emphasis on the malfunction of proteins as the leading cause of disease and on the ways to study and tackle these problems. Students will be led through the subject text books and journal papers promoting interactive scientific discussion and team work.
Skills and learning outcomes
Description of contents: programme
Proteins act both as building blocks and molecular machines orchestrating cell and tissue function. Our Biochemistry course will cover a variety of normal and pathological protein functions in processes such as metabolism, cell signaling, cancer and others. 1. Introduction 2. Enzymes 3. Protein analysis I 4. Protein analysis II 5. Metabolic routes I 6. Metabolic routes II 7. Metabolic routes III. Biosynthetic and degradation pathways 8. Signal Transduction 9. Signal Transduction 10. Cancer 11. Clinical biochemistry I 12. Clinical biochemistry II (diabetes and obesity). LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS a. protein extration quantification and analysis b. electrophoresis c. western blot analysis d. enzyme kinetics
Learning activities and methodology
The program will be divided into master (lectures) and discussion/problem classes and, laboratory. Students may be required to read assigned chapters/articles, or solve problems before the corresponding classes. For specific subjects there may be invited lectures given by prestigious professionals in the field. In the discussion and problems sections, relevant scientific articles and problems will be presented and discussed by the students and the teaching team. In the laboratory classes, students divided in small groups will perform the described experiments with the help of a supervisor and Lab guide prepared by the teaching team. Students will be required to pass an exam at the end of the practices.
Assessment System
  • % end-of-term-examination 60
  • % of continuous assessment (assigments, laboratory, practicals...) 40
Calendar of Continuous assessment
Basic Bibliography
  • Alberts- Johnson- Lews- Raff- Roberts- Walter . Molecular Biology Of The Cell 5th Edition. Cold Spring Harbor. 2009
  • Colleen Smith, Allan Marks, Michael A Lieberman.. Marks Basic Medical Biochemistry: A Clinical Approach. ISBN: 0781721458 Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2nd Edition. 2004
  • David L. Nelson, Michael M. Cox. Lehninger principles of biochemistry . New York : W. H. Freeman and Company . 2008
  • David L. Nelson, Michael M. Cox. Lehninger principles of biochemistry . New York : W. H. Freeman and Company . 6ª edición
  • Thomas M. Devlin. Textbook of Biochemistry with Clinical Correlations. John Wiley & Sons . 6th Edition
Additional Bibliography
  • Paul Engel. Pain-free biochemistry: an essential guide for the health sciences. John Wiley and Sons. 2009

The course syllabus may change due academic events or other reasons.