UCL - Biologie moléculaire et cellulaire intégrée

[BBMC2102]

[30h] 3 credits

Teacher(s): Henri Batoko, Bernard Hallet, René Rezsohazy, Yves-Jacques Schneider

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes

Aims

The course aims at integrating the molecular and cellular bases of the living world, from prokaryotic to eukaryotic cells. It should be regarded as an in-depth continuation of the undergraduate foundations acquired through the relevant cell biology, molecular genetics, biochemistry and metabolism courses, with emphasis on the integration of approaches and methodologies underpinning our understandings of life. The purpose is to understand how a cell can perceive the variations of its environment (within an organism or as a population of cells) and how it will translate these environmental cues into an appropriate response. This will require the understanding of different modes of cell communication and pathways underlying information transduction as well as their outputs in terms of metabolic activity, gene expression, cell division or differentiation. The various aspects will be treated with an evolutionary perspective, highlighting the common themes of life as opposed to peculiarities of the microbial, plant or animal worlds.This course should be considered as an anchor for the more specialized studies in molecular and cellular biology of microorganisms, plants, animals and humans, within the master program.

Main themes

The main topics of the course include :- signalling modules and pathways involved in cell perception and communication- mechanisms of gene regulation including epigenetic modifications of DNA and chromatin, transcriptional and translational regulations (small RNAs etc), as well as the posttranslational modifications of proteins and their turnover- regulation of metabolic activities- cell cycle and its control- molecular bases of cell differentiation and cell death- intracellular trafficking