Cell biology and technology

General aims: The course aims to introduce the students to the main approaches to functional genomics. Students will learn to apply the high-throughput techniques based on DNA microarrays and next generation sequencing NGS, measuring their potentials and their problems and limits. Focus will be placed on data mining methodologies, from image analysis to data normalization and statistical filtering to gene clustering and gene ontology. The availability of functional database and their use for improving biomedical research will also be explained. Specific Skills 1. Knowledge and comprehension: the student will have to know the basic principles, the potentiality and the possible weak points of the most utilized methodologies in functional genomics 2. Ability to apply knowledge and comprehension: the student will have to apply this knowledge to the critical interpretation of scientific literature in the specific field. 3. Judgment ability: the student will have to show ability in evaluating the solidity and the impact of recent work from the scientific literature and to present his conclusion to teacher and colleagues. 4. The student will have to show ability to extend the application of the analytical tools learned in the course (specific softwares freely available in the web) to his future experimental work.