Entry requirements

The general rules laid down by the Curriculum Committee of the Faculty of Pharmacy apply (see programme curriculum).

Aims

The course aims to give the student a knowledge of the processes that govern cell functions and principles of stability and variation in genetic molecules. The course also aims to provide the knowledge of molecular biology needed to understand effects of drugs and develop new modes of treatment. This basic knowledge, together with bio-informatic methods, is used for gene technology and genome analysis.

Content

- Important chemical, biophysical and structural aspects of nucleic acids and proteins.

- organisation of the genes and genomes in typical prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms and in well-known viruses and plasmids.

- How genetic information is transmitted to RNA and protein in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.

- Biological regulation and other factors that influence the relationship between genotype and phenotype in eukaryotic and prokaryotic systems.

- Genome replication and change through mutations and recombination processes and how DNA damage is repaired.

- Theoretical basis and practical training in genetic and microbiological methods, culture techniques and gene transfer.

- Different value/vector systems, cloning, techniques for nucleic acid purification, hybridisation, nucleotide sequencing, creation and demonstration of mutations, PCR/RT-PCR, construction and characterisation of libraries, manipulation and analysis of large DNA fragments, gene and genome mapping, expression analysis at the DNA and protein level and methods of studying molecular interactions.

- Functional genome analysis.

- How biomolecules are expressed for production purposes.

- Practical and theoretical basis of biological databases and different bioinformatic aids.

Instruction

Problem-oriented learning is combined with lectures, group exercises and laboratory exercises. For the problem-oriented learning, the students are divided into groups.

Compulsory parts of the course:

Seminars and laboratory sessions.

Assessment

Written examinations are held at the end of the course. Students are required to pass the compulsory parts of the course (examination code) as well as the final examination (examination code).