Course Coordinators: Z. Lygerou (Professor), V. Roukos (Assistant Professor)

The aim of the course is students’ familiarization with cutting-edge topics in Molecular and Cellular Biology and their applications. During the courses, the instructors remind students of basic concepts and terminology and introduce contemporary topics, experimental approaches and applications. During the course, concepts are clarified and contemporary findings and applications are deepened and discussed. In addition, the course aims to develop students’ skills in investigating international literature, writing a short review article (mini-review), and oral presentation of a research topic.

Educational Objectives

The recent development of contemporary biology has revealed impressive qualitative changes in the way bioscientists ask questions, make working hypotheses or formulate theories. We are now interested not only in determining the nucleotide sequence of DNA but in the higher levels of organization and function of living matter. It is not enough for us to map the chromosomal location of genes associated with diseases or to identify a mutated allele of a gene. We aim to investigate the biological function of proteins, their participation in regulatory supramolecular complexes that contribute to cellular physiology, their role in cell division and developmental processes, their participation in metabolic networks, signaling pathways, and in the transfer and processing of information. The rapid progress in the production of new knowledge in the field of investigating the physicochemical processes that govern the living world, the identification of the elements that mark the eternal dialectical relationship of a living organism with the environment, the investigation of the mechanisms that participate in shaping the evolution of species are now fields of interest not only for specialists, but also for broader, thinking social classes. The aim of the course is to understand the basic biological processes and the corresponding questions that currently concern molecular cell biology with individual objects of analysis from various levels of organization of living matter, starting from the interactions of biomolecules and the cell physiology up to the level of complex processes. The course, in a participatory process of teachers together with students, aspires to analyze and thoroughly explore the basic concepts and concerns of contemporary molecular cell biology, considering these elements an essential source of knowledge for the more specialized courses of the following semesters of the Master’s Degree in Biomedical Sciences.

Course Content

The course covers the following sections:

• Protein structure and function
• Flow of genetic information: from DNA to proteins
• Regulation of gene expression
• RNA biology
• Genomic stability: DNA replication and repair
• Methodologies for analyzing the structure of chromosomes in three dimensions
• Membrane structure – membrane transport
• Cellular Communication
• Stem cells and tissue regeneration
• Cellular metabolism and connection with diseases
• Extracellular matrix and cellular inter-reactions

The professors’ lectures are complemented by special topics presented by students. Students are invited to choose a topic to delve into through research and analysis of the literature, write a short review article (mini-review) and present it orally. The topics combine modern findings with applications, such as the SARS-Cov2 life cycle and new therapies, RNA-based therapies, CRISPR/Cas9 and gene therapy, Exosomes, Prions, Liquid-liquid phase separation and cellular organization, Replication stress and anti-cancer therapies, Autophagy and immune evasion in cancer, etc.