Genetics and Molecular Biology

1) Introduction and Background (8 hours) - Adult and embryonic stem cells; differentiation potential; stem cell niche; examples of adult stem cells; epigenetics. - Molecular biology techniques for the study of stem cells. 2) Molecular basis of pluripotency (20 hours) - Origin of embryonic stem cells; regulatory circuits in the formation of the mammalian blastocyst. - Regulation of pluripotency: signaling, "naive" and "primed" states of pluripotency, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory networks, epigenetic control of pluripotency, regulation by microRNAs and lncRNAs. - Molecular basis of pluripotent stem cell differentiation; examples of differentiation to generate cell types for therapy and research; strategies to improve the efficiency of differentiation. - Pluripotent stem cells in basic research and regenerative medicine. 3) Cell reprogramming and transdifferentiation (20 hours) - From nuclear transfer to iPS cells; - Molecular mechanisms of reprogramming; deterministic and stochastic models; early, intermediate and late phases in reprogramming; epigenetic memory. - Patient-specific iPS cells; applications of reprogramming in basic research and regenerative medicine; "genome editing" techniques to correct mutations; generation of organoids in vitro. - Transdifferentiation: methods and applications; epigenetic basis of transdifferentiation; examples of transdifferentiation to obtain cells of therapeutic interest (muscle, neurons).

Prerequisites (“propedeuticità”) are not required. However, the student must have basic notions of cellular and molecular biology.

Reference scientific articles and other teaching material will be indicated during the lectures. The teacher will also make available the powerpoint presentations of the lessons on the Sapienza Elearning platform.

The course takes place through a series of lectures and seminars.

Attendance is optional but strongly recommended

Assessment method: only oral exam to be held after the end of the course. The objective of the test is to verify the knowledge acquired, in line with the training objectives. The questions will be open and with an open answer. The duration of the oral exam will be approximately 30 minutes. The following elements will be considered for evaluation: acquisition of knowledge and autonomous reasoning skills. These aspects contribute in equal measure to the formulation of the final score.

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The course takes place through a series of lectures and seminars.