Pharmacy

FABIO SCIUBBA

General educational objectives
Biology can be defined as the entire field of disciplines that study living organisms in all their
manifestations and the natural laws that regulate them. Beyond the definitions, biology is one of the
most dynamic and rapidly expanding fields of human activity and has repercussions that affect
every aspect of our lives, from health to environmental issues. The research activity constantly
carried out by biologists all over the world has allowed us to acquire a great knowledge of
biological processes and to make ourselves more and more aware of our close interdependence with
the great variety of organisms present in our planet.
This course has mainly a propaedeutic purpose; taking into particular account the level of
preparation of each student, the objective to be achieved is allowing the student to face the courses
of the following years with the necessary basic knowledge and to know the aspects main topics of
the study of biology.
Specific educational objectives

1) Expected Learning Outcomes
In the course beyond a general knowledge of the fundamental topics of biology, we want to give
appropriate importance to the concepts mainly related to professional training in the pharmaceutical
field, as well as to the subsequent subjects of the Degree Course.
For this reason we will follow a path that starts from the Chemistry of Life, and then, by deepening
the constitution of living beings at the cellular level with references to the basic biochemical and
genetic mechanisms, leads to the understanding of the higher organizational levels up to the
organismic level of Biology, both for plants and animals, taking into account the evolutionary
peculiarities, and with hints also to the ecological part.
The course has been designed and implemented with the aim of making the numerous and complex
aspects of Biology interesting and accessible: it is important that the students acquire a greater
awareness of the variety of life forms, their enormous adaptability to the environment and their
ecological and evolutionary correlations, understanding, at the same time, the dynamic way in
which science works and make progress.
The study of Plant Biology will focus on the peculiarities of plants, from the metabolic ones to the
morpho-functional ones, in order to provide the basic notions useful in the degree course, with
particular reference to the topics that will be further explored in the course of Pharmacognosy. The
main objective of the study of Animal Biology will be the acquisition of basic knowledge on animal
structures and functions at different levels of complexity, with emphasis on their adaptive meaning.
We intend to highlight both the universality of evolutionary solutions, and the main alternative
solutions to general problems of functionality of complex organic systems in the Man and in the
main Phyla of the Metazoan.
The teaching of Biology at the first-year level is congruent with the course of the student enrolled in
the degree course in CTF, as it is intended to establish a solid base of scientific knowledge on which

to build their professional skills, which include a wide range of disciplines, all closely related to
each other.
The logical path of the topics will be developed through five consecutive sections:
a) Chemistry of Life. Science and Biology in the pharmaceutical context. Modern Biology and
Systems Biology. Evolution of the scientific method. Also including elements of Primary and
Secondary Metabolism.
b) Cellular Biology, with the main elements of the cellular constitution and its functioning.
Understanding diversity: systematics and phylogeny. Viruses and sub-viral agents. Bacteria.
Archaea. Origin of Eukaryotes. Protists.
c) Plant Biology, the main botanical aspects of plant organisms and related organisms.
d) Formal Genetics and Molecular Biology. Chromosomes, cell cycle, mitosis and meiosis. DNA
replication. From DNA to proteins: gene expression. Mutations. Regulation of gene expression.
Genomes. Introduction to the Darwinian concept of evolution. The mechanisms of evolution:
evolutionary changes in populations. Speciation. Macroevolution. Evolution of genes and genomes.
e) Animal Biology. At the end of this section, the student acquires a general knowledge on the
biology of animal organisms through the study of model groups.
2) Applied Knowledge and Understanding
The evaluation of the student will be carried out mainly through a final written test, which will
focus on all the topics of the program, testing the student's ability in a form that avoids the
psychological difficulty arising from a university-type oral examination to which he/she is not still
used to.
3) Judgment autonomy

The student will deepen what he learned during the lessons on the recommended texts, which have
been written and thought mainly for the students of the pharmaceutical courses. This deepening will
allow him to rediscover these topics in the future, when the memories of the concepts taught in the
classroom will be partly forgotten. The texts will remain as a reference for the student who will
know where to find detailed concepts, especially useful to pass the exam.
The teaching of Vegetal and Animal Biology consists of lectures, with some final exercises to
prepare the students for the exam. The lessons are all interactive: the teacher stimulates the students
with questions to which they, based on their knowledge and what they have learned in class, can
give an answer. This allows the teacher to evidence the links between the current course and the
previous knowledge, fundamental to understand what is proposed in class.
The continuous references to concepts of previous courses must make the student accustomed to
study the proposed subject not as something closed, only aimed to pass the final exam and to be
filed immediately afterwards, but intends to highlight a multidisciplinary study, absolutely required
to face the university study. The student will find on the e-learning platform the slides and the
teaching material (exam program, recommended texts) useful for the preparation of the exam. It is
understood that the slides are a guide to the exam topics, but they can never absolutely replace the
recommended texts and lectures given by the teacher.

Attendance to the course is optional but strongly recommended. In fact, the percentage of students
who pass the exam and with good grades is limited to those who have regularly attended, while is
generally high the failure percentage among not attending students.
4) Communication skills
The assessment methods of the course are characterized by an exam session set in the months of
January, February and May, excluding the periods in which the lessons are held. The teacher is also
available to hold, at the request of the students, additional appeals during the months of April and
September, reserved for undergraduate and off-course students, in accordance with the provisions of
the respective CCL. The objective of the test is to certify the student's knowledge and assimilation
of the main topics that will then be the subject of further study in subsequent courses. The elements
taken into consideration for the evaluation are: the knowledge of the subject, in all the main areas of
Biology covered by the exam program, the ability of reasoning demonstrated in the choice of
answers and the ability to study autonomously on the indicated texts.

The aim of the course is to provide the basic elements for understanding cellular processes with emphasis on the potential pharmacological targets that students may encounter both during their studies and during their career. These targets will mainly concern viral, bacterial and animal processes.

Students will benefit from high school-level knowledge of chemistry.

Elements of General Chemistry, Chemistry of Life: molecules and macromolecules of biological interest, Elements of cytology, definition and general characteristics of cells, Cell structure, differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, organelles, differences between animal cells and plants, membrane proteins and cellular communication, primary and secondary metabolism, cellular respiration, photosynthesis, DNA replication, protein synthesis: transcription and translation of DNA. Cell replication: cell cycle, mitosis and meiosis, Elements of systematics: Viruses, Bacteria, Protists, Fungi, Plants and Animals.

E.P. Solomon, C.E. Martin, D.W. Martin, L.R. Berg; BIOLOGIA (edizione VIII ), EdiSES

The lessons will be held in frontal/traditional mode.

The Atendance of the course is mandatory

Students will be assessed through written open-ended questions.

Describe the main features of plant cells.