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 (20 multiple choice questions). Wrong answers will be penalized (questions with 4 choices: -0.25 points; questions with 2 choices: -0.5 points).
- 20% : Oral communication of a scientific paper in working groups. Assessment: 0 (unacceptable), 0.5 (deficient), 1 (acceptable), 1.5 (good) or 2 (very good).
- 60% : Individual final exam covering the entirety of the course (50 multiple choice questions 80% + 2 short questions 20%). Wrong answers will be penalized (questions with 4 choices: -0.25 points; questions with 2 choices: -0.5 points).
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 COURSE QUALIFICATION MUST BE A MINIMUM of 5 points out of 10 to pass the course.
Only for those students who fail the course (less than 5 points out of 10 as course qualification) will be eligible to take the BASIC COMPETENCES EXAM. In this exam, if passed (minimum of 5 points out of 10), the maximum grade given will be 5 points out of 10 AND will be the course qualification.
IMPORTANT: Students who already passed the oral communication, the scored mark will be kept for the current 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.
Learning outcomes:
- Distinguishing the structure of biomolecules and its determining factors in order to understand how it conditions their functionality.
- Knowing the main structures of the eukaryotic animal cell and its function.
- Knowing and understanding cell specialization and its organization in tissues.
- Knowing the factors determining the membrane potential and its voltage variations in response to different stimuli generating action potentials.