The stduents can decide if the course will be delivered in Italian or in English. Slides and all the material provided by the teacher will be in English.
Course Content
The student acquires intellectual tools fundamental to reach a critical knowledge of biologically relevant structures and properties of organic molecules for the future study of bioorganic chemistry. In particular the student studies nucleic acids, amino acids and their co- and post-translational modifications (phosphorylation, sulfation, glycosylation, acetylation, etc.), carbohydrates, fatty acids, sphingolipids and glycosphingolipids.
Notes and articles will be made available by the teacher.
Learning Objectives
Competences acquired: Organic molecules involved in biological processes.
Skills acquired (at the end of the course): Molecular basis for the future understanding of processes of bioorganic chemistry.
Prerequisites
Courses recommended: General and Inorganic Chemistry and General and Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Organic Chemistry I and Organic Chemistry Laboratory I
Teaching Methods
Presentations based on slides. Instructional strategy based on flipped classrooms. Exchange of material via dropbox.
Further information
.
Type of Assessment
Oral examination.
Course program
Chemistry of amino acids. Definition of amino acids as protein components. Amino acid classification. Acid-base properties. Functional significance of R groups. Optical properties. Peptide bond. Co- and post-translational modifications of amino acids in proteins and biological role: phosphorylation, sulfation, modifications of cysteine and methionine, methylation, N-acetylation, glycosyltion, lipidation. ADP-ribosylation, lipoylation, carboxylation. Chemistry of carbohydrates. Biological role of carbohydrates in proteins. Role of biologically relevant lipids. Fatty acids. Physiologically relevant fatty acids. Omega-3, and -6, Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids. Triacylglycerides. Phospholipids. Plasmalogens. Sphingolipids and glycosphingolipids: biological role in neurological diseases Chemistry of nucleic acids. Nucleoside and Nucleotide structure. Adenosine derivatives. Guanosine derivatives. Nucleotide Derivatives in tRNAs. Nucleotide Derivatives in tRNAs. Polynucleotides. Structure of DNA. Thermal Properties of DNA. Analysis of DNA Structure. Finally, the students will perform some laboratory experimental activities related to the major topics of the course.