Food and Industrial Biotechnology

Learning aims General aims: the main aim of this course is to provide the students with basic knowledge on how cells are organised and how they work, with a particular focus on the animal eukaryotic cell. The classroom teaching sessions conform a learning path that takes the students from the basic facts about prokaryotic cells to the detailed study of the morphological and functional aspects of the eukaryotic cells, particularly those of animals. All these theoretical aspects are reinforced with four practical sessions, which provide the students with hands-on knowledge on how to use the optic microscope to study the morphology of pro- and eukaryotic cells, both as isolated entities or as part of different tissues of the animal organism. Specific aims: after completing the course and passing the exam, the students will know and understand (acquired knowledge) about: the diversity of cells (prokaryotic and eukaryotic); the functional components of cells, starting from the nature of biological molecules in an aqueous environment, following with the structure and function of lipids in biological membranes; proteins, including their synthesis, structure and trafficking; nucleic acids, including their synthesis and the mechanisms underlying the flux of genetic information; the spatial and functional divisions of eukaryotic cells; complex cellular functions including signalling, cell division and death; as well as cellular organisation into the four types of animal tissues. After completing the course and passing the exam, the students will be able (acquired know-how) of: identifying the different types of cells and tissues at the optic microscope, as well as intracellular organelles in electron microscopy images; of critically reasoning about the molecular mechanisms that underlie the working of cells; and of understanding the methodologies used to come about the knowledge we currently have about those mechanisms. Critical thinking will be stimulated during the practical laboratory sessions in which the optic microscope is used for the study of different animal tissues, whose main characteristics have to be schematised by the students in a diagram that is evaluated by the teacher at the end of the practical session. The communication skills of the students will be stimulated during the teaching sessions by discussing the arguments under examination and the student’s questions about them, and by devoting a full teaching session at the end of the course to questions and answers about all the concepts treated along the course. Their performance in communication will be evaluated during the oral part of the final examination. The students that pass the exam will be able to discuss cell biology concepts using the appropriated terminology. The students are encouraged to study the concepts discussed during the teaching sessions independently, completing their class notes with the reference books recommended by the teachers. This should reinforce their ability to develop a complete picture of biological processes and to integrate all the aspects discussed into a general frame of knowledge.