Advanced Cell Biology 1: Experimental Approaches

This required course unit for the “Molecular and Cellular Biology” track aims to deepen and supplement—primarily through tutorial and lab sessions—the fundamental molecular and cellular processes covered in the BCM2, BCM3, and Advanced Molecular and Cellular Biology courses by exploring them in greater depth. These sessions will focus on the topics of intracellular trafficking, the cell cycle, and apoptosis, building on the material covered in the BCM3 course.

A group project will be conducted during the tutorial session, during which students will analyze a scientific article and write a structured summary that outlines the context of the study, the specific scientific question posed by the authors, the strategies employed, and the techniques used to address it. The purpose of this project is to help prepare students for writing their final-year project and internship reports in the Master’s program.

Tutorials and lab sessions will be conducted in an integrated manner, covering the same topics as those addressed in lectures. Tutorials will be directly linked to lab sessions. Students will be required to pose a question related to a cellular mechanism and, following the scientific method, propose an experimental strategy to answer it. The lab sessions will allow students to apply this strategy by incorporating techniques from biochemistry, molecular biology, and cell biology, such as immunoblotting, cell culture, immunolabeling, and fluorescence microscopy. The results obtained will be analyzed using image analysis techniques and bioinformatics.

- Knowledge:

- knowledge and understanding of the fundamental concepts of cell biology and molecular biology

- Understand the basic principles of protein targeting to different cellular compartments.

- Understand the basic principles of vesicular trafficking (the concepts of fission and fusion, and knowledge of some of the major proteins involved—Rabs, Arf, SNARE, SNX, BAR proteins, etc.—as well as nuclear proteins).

- Understand the different stages of the cell cycle and the major molecular principles governing its regulation (CDK and cyclin concepts).

- Understand the major pathways leading to cell death (necrosis, apoptosis, anoikis, etc.) and the signaling mechanisms associated with them.

- Be familiar with methods for studying the modes of protein-protein interactions (direct/indirect) (pull-down, immunoprecipitation, in vitro interaction, etc.).

- Understand the approaches used to assess the importance of a protein in a cellular mechanism (siRNA, cells derived from knockout mice, expression of dominant-negative or constitutively active mutants) in relation to the concepts of loss-of-function and gain-of-function.

- Understand cell transfection methods

- Expertise:

- know how to analyze a figure in a scientific article.

- know how to analyze and interpret the findings of a scientific article and be able to summarize them briefly (Level 1 of article analysis).

- know how to perform plasmid transfection in a cell line.

- know how to perform immunocytochemical/fluorescent staining.

- understand the basics of using an upright epifluorescence microscope.

- know how to use simple image analysis and bioinformatics tools

- Interpersonal skills:

- work independently and in groups

- Write a lab report in accordance with the formatting guidelines and within the allotted time

- Follow the health and safety rules for a laboratory and the good laboratory practices related to the culture of cell lines

- From molecules to cells (S1).

- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Cell (S2).

- Cellular and Molecular Biology (S3).

- Cell Biology and Molecular Biology (S4)

- Advanced Course in Cellular and Molecular Biology (S4)

- This course provides an in-depth exploration of the fundamental concepts and techniques of cell biology and molecular biology and is required for admission to the master’s program in Genetics, Epigenetics, and Cellular Determinism.