Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell'Ambiente - Guida degli insegnamenti (Syllabus)

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BIOMEDICAL BACTERIOLOGY
FRANCESCA BIAVASCO

Seat Scienze
A.A. 2016/2017
Credits 6
Hours 48
Period 1^ semestre
Language ENG
U-gov code SM04 W000011

Prerequisites

Good knowledge of General Microbiology and Molecular Biology 



Development of the course

The course encompasses lectures (5 credits, 40 hours) and lab practice in small working groups (1 credit, 8 hours). Course attendance is not mandatory, although lab practice is strongly recommended. Students who have not followed labs must anyway know their content and be able to describe the experimental assays (they can find detailed lecture notes on the Department web site and ask the professor for clarification). 



Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will be required to have a detailed knowledge of the structure and function of the bacterial cell parts and of bacterial pathogenicity, including the molecular bases of its origin, evolution and spread. Students will also be required to know the bases of bacterial taxonomy, the main features of bacterial genera and species involved in human (and animal) infections, their transmission routes and the main criteria for their culture, isolation and identification.

Ability to apply the knowledge:
Students will have the ability of recognizing the main pathogenic or potential pathogenic genera and species and to be able to reproduce procedures useful to their isolation, culture and identification. In specific cases student will have the ability to discriminate, within a single species, between virulent and avirulent strains. 

Soft skills:
Lab practice will contribute to improve students’ interpersonal skills, their independence in terms of work management and their ability to work as a part of a team and to critically discuss the results. Moreover, students will be encouraged to make connections with what learned in other courses, with particular regard to Diagnostic Microbiology.



Program

What you’ll learn (theoretical training, 5 credits, 40 hours):
Pathogenicity and virulence. Adhesiveness and invasiveness, intracellular pathogens; fimbriae: structure, classification and involvement in virulence; secretion systems; main bacterial toxins; bacterial mechanisms for escaping host defenses, survival in the host cells. Evolution of bacterial pathogens. Pathogenicity and Resistance Islands. Transmission routes of bacterial diseases, zoonosis 
Bacterial phylogenesis, classical and molecular taxonomy, the concept of species in bacteriology, the Bergey’s manual. Bacterial identification and preservation. Main groups of bacteria involved in human pathology. Enterobacteriaceae (Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia and others), pseudomonads and other nonfermenting bacilli, genus Vibrio and Aeromonas, Campylobacter and Helycobacter; neisseriae, yersiniae, brucellae; hemophili, bordetellae mycobacteria; staphylococci; streptococci, enterococci; listeriae; spore-forming aerobes (Bacillus anthracis and Bacillus cereus); spore-forming anaerobes (Clostridium tetani, Clostridium botulinum, Clostridium perfringens); other anaerobes; spirochetes (genus Borrelia, Treponema and Leptospira); rickettsiae, chlamydiae, mycoplasmas, legionellae. 

Laboratory practice: isolation and identification of different bacterial species from biological samples.



Development of the examination

Methods for assessing learning outcomes:
The exam will take the form of an interview and each student will be asked three questions. Erasmus students can have a written multiple-choice test in either English or Italian including 30 questions. 

Criteria for assessing learning outcomes: 
Each student will be required to demonstrate an understanding of the asked topic and to be able to organize a logical and understandable answer, he should also be able to make connections with related, and entry required, disciplines. The student will be required to demonstrate his knowledge of the theoretical bases of the experimental procedures he is asked to describe.
Students who will face the written test will have to mark the correct answer.

Criteria for measuring learning outcomes:
A 30-point scale will be used to measure your performance, with 18 being the minimum score to pass the exam and 30 being the highest, considering also your ability of thinking and make connections. In the event of an outstanding performance, the professor can decide to reward the student with a 30 cum laude.

Criteria for conferring final mark:
The final mark will be awarded based on the evaluation of the answers to the three questions. Honors will be awarded when the mark is 30 and the student has demonstrated a particularly good command of the matter.



Recommended reading

Bendinelli, Chezzi, Dettori manca, Morace, Polonelli, Tufano. Microbiologia medica-Batteriologia. Ed. Monduzzi
La Placa. Principi di Microbiologia Medica. Società Editrice Esculapio.
Antonelli, Clementi, Pozzi, Rossolini. Principi di microbiologia medica. Casa Editrice Ambrosiana. 
Wilson, Salyers, Whitt, Winkler. Bacterial Pathogenesis – a molecular ap-proach. ASM press; Whashington, DC 
Madigan, Martinko, Stahl, Clark. Brock - Biologia dei microrganismi-vol. 3, Mi-crobiologia biomedica. Ed. Pearson Italia. 
Wiley, Sherwood, Woolverton. Prescott 3 - Microbiologia medica. Ed. McGraw-Hill. 
Lecture and lab practice exercises notes.



Courses
  • Biologia molecolare e applicata




Università Politecnica delle Marche
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