1. Concept and origin of life.
Evolutionary cells origin: Prebiotic molecules, catalysis and self-replication.
2. Cells as structural and functional unit of living systems.
Cell Theory. Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic cells.
The Eukaryotic animal cell.
The cell and its subcomponents.
3. Eukaryotic cell structure: Cell membrane.
Structure: Fluid mosaic model. Composition and properties.Functions: Transport through the membrane, processes of exocytosis and endocytosis.
4. Eukaryotic cell structure: Mitochondria.
Compartments and ATP's production.
5. Eukaryotic cell structure: Endomembrane system and vesicular traffic.
The endoplasmic reticulum: synthesis and protein transportation.
The Golgi apparatus.
Lysosomes and peroxisomes.
6. Eukaryotic cell structure: The nucleus.
Nuclear membrane, nucleoplasm and nucleolus. Chromatin and chromosomes.
Cell division. Mitosis and Meiosis.
7. Eukaryotic cell structure: The cytoskeleton.
Microtubules. Actin filaments. Cell contraction and cell mobility. Intermediate filaments.
8. Cell relationship with the environment: Extracellular matrix. Organization and main components.
9. Cell to cell communication: Adhesions and Intercellular unions. Types and functions.
10. Cell to cell communication. Intercellular signal Concept and types. Signal Receptors and signal transduction.
Cell cycle. Phases and cell cycle regulation. Programmed cell death.
Cancer.
11. Differentiation and cell specialization. Multicellular organisms.
Stem cell concept. Basic concepts of embryology.
12. Organization in tissues. Human tissues. Basic features.
Evaluation:
- 20% : Individual midterm exam covering part of the course (25 multiple choice questions). Wrong answers will be penalized (-0.25).
- 20% : Oral communication of a scientific paper in working groups. Assessment: 0 (unacceptable), 1 (acceptable) or 2 (Very good).
- 60% : Individual final exam covering the entirety of the course (50 multiple choice questions + 2 short questions).Wrong answers will be penalized (-0.25).
The grade resulting from all assignments will be finally added to the final exam grade (only if the final exam gets a minimum of 4/10 points).
The final grade to pass the subject has to be at least 5.
There will be a basic-competences exam for those students that have participated in the required learning and assessment activities and been given a “fail” grade. The highest possible grade that a student can achieve in the basic-competences exam is 5. In any case, the grades from the midterm exam and the oral communication will be added to the final grade obtained in the basic-competences exam.
IMPORTANT: Grades from the assessment activities from the previous course will not be kept during this course.
Criteris específics de la nota «No Presentat»:
Students are required to participate in the assessment activities during the course (oral communication and midterm exam) as well as to present for final examination (and basic-competences exam, if required). On the contrary, will be considered as non-attendance.
Objectives:
1. To achieve basic knowledge of the cell as a fundamental unit that forms living beings.
2. To describe the structure of the eukaryotic animal cell: organelles structure and main functions.
3. To define the composition and the main extracellular matrix functions as a basic part of tissues.
4. To describe cell to cell communication; types of signals and receptors.
5.To describe the main features of human tissues.