Cellular Molecular Physiology

Catalog description

Pre-requisite: BCHM 8511 (or its equivalent) This course will provide students with basic concepts of Cell Physiology from a molecular point of view. Three main areas will be presented: 1) Physiological Genomics (gene structure and chromatin organization, DNA repair, regulation of gene expression, RNA splicing, and RNA translation); 2) Cellular Physiology (intracellular compartments, protein synthesis and sorting, vesicular trafficking and final targeting to organelles or structures such as endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, plasma membrane, lyso some and nucleus); 3) Mitochondrial Physiology (mitochondrial genetics, protein import, respiration and apoptosis); 4) Physiology of Aging (model organisms, molecular genetics of aging in higher eukaryotes). In addition, some time have been dedicated to re ceptor regulation at the transcriptional, posttranscriptional, translational and postranslational level. Finally, the course will cover cellular processes that are related to proteins involved in cell communication and cytoskeletal proteins. The material will be presented as lectures and presentation of specific recent publications.