BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES
There are no binding prerequisites for this integrated course and no specific prior knowledge is required, but some basic notions of mathematics, including equivalences, proportions, powers and logarithms.
Students who, despite having passed the admission test to the degree course, have not reached the minimum scores established for the specific disciplines, will be assigned an additional educational obligation (OFA) to be completed within the first year of the course. This obligation, which includes an OFA Recovery Test, will be fulfilled in the ways and terms indicated by the individual teachers at the beginning of the course.
The exam of the integrated course takes place through written tests concerning all the topics covered in the teaching modules. The integrated course exam is unique, as for all integrated courses, and includes all the disciplines that are part of it. Note that:
- the final score is unique, and represents an average of the assessments obtained in each module;
- insufficiency in a module compromises the outcome of the entire exam which must be repeated with a new registration.
The Chemistry and Biochemistry part of the exam is performed through the elearning portal and consists of 5 open-ended questions of progressive difficulty, aimed at ascertaining the general knowledge of the contents, the basic information on the topics, and the ability to critically discuss them according to a criterion of essentiality. For this reason, students are allowed to consult during the test texts and didactic material used for the preparation. The answers are expected to be synthetic, straightforward and precise, and at the same time exhaustive. The time available for the test is 45 minutes. The evaluation of the text will only report errors, deficiencies and incompleteness. The correct formulation of the answers will be presented collectively, after each student's vision of his/her outcomes.
As for the General Biology and Medical Genetics course, the questions will always be formulated with multiple choices, with 5 possible alternatives, of which only one is correct, relating to all the topics covered in the module.
Finally, for MICROBIOLOGY the test will be organized in multiple choice with only one answer per question.
In all tests the questions will be prepared in order to verify the degree of knowledge of the subject; the student's ability to make connections between study topics; the degree of personal in-depth study by the student; the property of technical-scientific language.
The commission will make the average of the scores of the tests. In case of a score just below the treshold, an oral session could be done with additional questions.
The integrated course aims to transmit to future healthcare professionals the logic, the language, and the conceptual foundations of the scientific reasoning. Students are expected to become confident enough in life sciences to be able to reject with conviction ideological or magical thought in the context of one's professional activity. Specifically, the course aims to provide the student with the fundamental notions of knowledge and understanding of biological molecules, their characteristics and transformations in human and microbiological processes, under either physiological or pathological conditions.
The integrated course includes the teachings of:
• CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY
Credits: 3
• GENERAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICAL GENETICS
Credits 2
• GENERAL MICROBIOLOGY
Credits: 1
The specific training objectives are as follows:
- knowing the chemical basis of the structure of living matter and understanding its interactions in the physiological environment
- knowledge of the structural and functional principles of biomolecules that regulate the metabolic activities of unicellular and multicellular organisms and of the fundamentals of transmission and expression of genetic information;
- understanding the metabolic characteristics of the main tissues, organs, and systems under physiological or pathological conditions;
- Knowledge of the structure of living organisms and understanding of the genetic mechanisms of transmission of characters.
- Understanding the mechanisms of inheritance in humans and mastering the analysis of family trees.
- memorization of the main microorganisms and their metabolism, interaction with the human body and the onset of the main infectious diseases;
- mastering the theory of manipulation modalities of biomolecules and microorganisms;
- understanding of the involvement of biological macromolecules in the development of pathologies and of the biological-molecular foundations of diagnostic tests.
EXPECTED LEARNING RESULTS
At the end of the course the student will be able to:
- discuss the energy and kinetic requirements of biological reactions
- know the function of the main classes of biomolecules, in particular their metabolism in physiological and pathological conditions and the structure / function relationship of nucleic acids
- Remember and explain how the transmission of genetic material takes place;
- Indicate the main microorganisms, their behavior, their metabolism and involvement in human pathologies;
- Discuss and analyze the main methods of manipulation of biomolecules and microorganisms;
- Analyse the modification of metabolisms in the development of physiological and pathological phenomena and identify the fundamental junctions at the basis of molecular, biochemical and genetic diagnostic tests.
- use an adequate chemical/scientific lexicon
It should be noted, as indicated in the SUA form, that attendance at lectures is compulsory and that in order to access the exam, a certificate of attendance of at least 75% of the total hours provided for the entire integrated course is required.
Modules
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Credits: 3
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Credits: 2
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Credits: 1