Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
---|---|---|---|
2501922 Nanoscience and Nanotechnology | OB | 2 | 1 |
The student must have completed the courses "Principles of Biochemistry" and "cell biology" which belong to the basic training of the first year of the degree in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.
The Metabolic Biochemistry subject constitutes the second part of the subject "Fundamentals of Biochemistry" of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and in it we study the processes that determine the functioning of living organisms in each of its levels of organization from a basic and general point of view, as befits a second year course. The general aim of the course is to describe at the molecular level the mechanisms that take place in a cell, both from the point of view of the transfer of energy, as well as the transmission of signals and description of its metabolism in order to provide the foundations of molecular and metabolic aspects and basic concepts.
Specific objectives of the course:
THEORY
Unit 1. Basic concepts of metabolism.
The concept of metabolism and metabolic pathway. Stages of metabolism. Free energy for biological processes. Coupled reactions. Role of ATP in metabolism and other phosphorylated compounds. Oxido-reductions in biochemical processes. Role of electron transporters in the metabolism. Control and compartmentalization of metabolic pathways. Mechanisms of enzymatic catalysis.
Unit 2. Biosignaling mechanisms.
Hormones, neurotransmitters and other primary messengers Intracellular and membrane receptors. Molecular mechanisms of signal transduction. Integration of nuclear and cytoplasmic effectors.
Unit 3. Metabolism of carbohydrates.
Degradation of glucose: Glycolysis and via of the phosphate pentoses. Fermentation. Gluconeogenesis. Synthesis and degradation of glycogen. Use of other carbohydrates. Coordination in the control of the metabolism of glucose and glycogen: importance of the metabolic specialization of the tissues.
Unit 4. Central routes of the oxidative metabolism.
Production of acetyl-CoA. Citric acid cycle. Energy performance and regulation. Anaplerotic reactions. Glyoxylate cycle.
Unit 5. Electronic transport and oxidative phosphorylation
Mitochondrial electronic transport chain. Origin and use of small substrates. Quimiosmotic coupling: ATP synthase and oxidative phosphorylation. Mitochondrial transport systems. Regulation of the oxidative phosphorylation. Energy balance of oxidative metabolism.
Unit 6. Photosynthesis.
Basic process of photosynthesis. Photosynthetic pigments. Light energy absorption. Electronic transport and photophosphorylation. Assimilation of the CO2 and biosynthesis of photosynthetic carbohydrates (Calvin cycle). Regulation of photosynthesis. Fotorespiration and C4 cycle.
Unit 7. Metabolism of lipids.
Use of triacilglicerols for animals. Lipoprotein metabolism. Description and regulation route of fatty acids oxidation. Cetogenesis. Description and regulation of the biosynthesis of fatty acids. Biosynthesis of triacilglicerols and phospholipids. Metabolism of cholesterol.
Unit 8. Metabolism of nitrogenous compounds.
The nitrogen cycle. General characteristics of the synthesis and degradation of amino acids. Fate of the carbon atoms of the amino acids. Removal of ammonia and the urea cycle. General characteristics of nucleotide metabolism. Biomedical applications of nucleotide analogues.
Unit 9. Integration of metabolism.
Tissue-specific metabolism. Coordination between the metabolism of the liver, muscle (skeletal and cardiac), adipose tissue and the brain. The main regulatory hormones. Adaptation of metabolism to diverse physiological conditions.
PROBLEMS
The problems refer to some aspects of the theory. The particularities of the some parts of the theory determine that the practical problems focus only in specific themes, such as enzymatic reactions of oxidation-reduction, specific steps of the metabolic pathways, etc. The problems’ list will be delivered at the beginning of the semester through the Moodle/Virtual Campus site.
LABORATORY PRACTICE
There will be three sessions of 5 hours each:
1-determination of the concentration of ethanol in alcoholic beverages.
2-determination of Pyruvate kinase activity in the liver and muscle of rat.
3-identification and extraction of lipids present in the food.
The script and the practices will be posted at the beginning of the academic year at the Moodle/Virtual Campus of the subject and the students are required to print it and bring it the day of the first practice session.
The training activities are divided into three sections: theory lessons, tutorials and laboratory practicals, each of them with their specific methodology. These activities may be complemented by mentoring sessions.
Classes of theory
The teacher will explain the contents of the agenda with the support of audiovisual material that will be available to students at the Moodle/Virtual Campus site. This support material will be written in Catalan, Spanish or English. The exposition lectures will conform the main part of the theory.
Classes of problems
Throughout the course we will spend 8 hours in class sessions of problems.
In a part of sessions, spread throughout the semester, the professor will solve some of the problems, selecting the most representative of each type. Additionally, if necessary, the teacher will teach additional subject of theory to solve the problems corresponding to any of the parts.
During other sessions students will resolve the problems with the help of the teacher. Students will be able to bring previously prepared problems from home. During the class the problems are discussed together and the teacher will help in the resolution of the problems. As indicated later in the evaluation section, the correction of these problems will be taken into account in the final qualification, as complementary to the note obtained in the individual assessment.
Synthesis project:
Preparation of a project in groups of 2/3 and oral exposition
Laboratory practice
The group is divided into groups according to five subgroups, the lists of which will be announced in advance. In order to ensure the good functioning of the practical sessions, changes are only accepted if clearly justified and previously accepted by the professors of practice. As a general rule, the unique accepted changes are those related to student exchange between different groups. It is necessary to come to practical training with lab coat, glasses for protection against splashes, the protocolof practices (available in Moodle/Virtual Campus) printed and previously read and a notebook to jot down observations made and data obtained during the practicum.
In the days set out in the schedule, the students will attend the laboratory session on: Basic Biochemistry Methodology for the determination of properties and analysis of biomolecules. The practices, as well as its evaluation, will be carried out in groups of two people. After each session you will be given a questionnaire with the results of the experiment and the basis to the questions raised. Attendance at practical training is mandatory, except in cases where there is a proved justified reason.
Delivery of works by the Moodle/Virtual Campus
At the end of each block of the topics of theory, a collection of questions that must be answered in a week period of time will be delivered through the Moodle/Virtual Campus tool. The questions will be related to concepts explained in the theory sessions and also with issues of learning that can be found and studied by means of the student autonomous learning.
Tutorials
Individual tutorial sessions will be held at the request of the students. In the event that the number of applications was extremely high, especially for midterms, a classroom tutoring could be organized. The goal of these sessions will be to solve doubts, revise the basics, and carry out discussions on the topics for which there are programmed autonomous learning or that have been proposed by the teachers.
Material available at the Moodle/Virtual Campus:
Educational guide
Presentations used by teachers in classes of theory
Protocols for the practicum
List and additional learning topics to classes of theory
Calendar of educational activities (Theory and lab classes,tutoring, assessments, deliveries, etc.).
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|
Type: Directed | |||
Lectures | 30 | 1.2 | 12, 25, 10, 18, 19 |
Practicum | 15 | 0.6 | 13, 9, 11, 4, 21, 15, 17, 20, 27, 6, 22 |
Problems teaching | 8 | 0.32 | 12, 17, 5, 20, 27 |
Type: Supervised | |||
Tutories | 6 | 0.24 | 12, 3, 13, 17, 20 |
Work submission by Virtual Campus | 4 | 0.16 | 12, 25, 10, 15, 17, 18, 19, 5 |
Type: Autonomous | |||
autonomous work | 60 | 2.4 | 12, 25, 3, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 27 |
problem solving and synthesis project | 22 | 0.88 | 15, 17, 5, 20, 27 |
The evaluation of this course will include partial examinations and a final test. The purpose of the continuous assessment is to encourage the efforts of the student throughout the course, allowing the monitoring of the student understanding of the subject. The final test is used to check that the student has achieved the necessary degree of integration of subject knowledge.
Theory
Individual assessment by:
Although the tests are partial qualifiers, it is possible to improve the obtained mark on the occasion of the last exam. The second qualification will be considered in case it is better than the one obtained in the first examination. Otherwise, if the grade obtained in the second chance is less than 1 point or more than the first note obtained, the final note will be calculated as the average of the two notes.
For the adjudication of the maximum award of honor qualification preference will be given to the marks obtained in midterms’ exam.
The weight of the assessment of theory will be 65% of the total. The 60% corresponds to the theory exams and 5% to the mark obtained from delivery of responses to continuous assessment tests.
Problems
Evaluation by test:
The weight of the assessment of problems will be 10% of the total.
Assessment of problems solved during the course:
The weight of the assessment of the problems presented will be 5% of the total.
Synthesis project
The weight to the synthesis project corresponds to 10%
Practices
Group assessment:
Attendance to laboratory practicals is mandatory. Group changes will be accepted only in exceptional circumstances and provided with documentary justification. In case of justified no attendance to any of the practice sessions, the student has the option to do it in a different group than the first assigned. If this is not possible to organize, the session shall not be considered in the calculation of the final practices mark.
The weight of the assessment of practices will be of 10% of the total.
Marks
The three sections are inseparable, so the student must participate and be evaluated in all of them in order to overcome the course. The final grade will be calculated according to the parameters listed in the table presented below, so that the section of the exam of theory has a 65% of the note, the section on problems 20%, the 10% on practice and the delivery of Theory responses to continuous assessment tests with a 5%. The course will be overcame when the final mark is equal to or greater than 50 for a maximum of 100. However, in order to overcome the course it is prerequisite to have achieved at least a note top 30% of each section (theory, problems and practices).
Other considerations
Students who cannot attend a test of individual evaluation for ajustified reason and provide the official documentation to the Grade Coordinator and/or coordinator of the course, shall be entitled to perform the test at a different date.
In any case, students who are in a situation that, with justified cause, could not attend the partial exams, can be evaluated by means of the final exam. In addition, in order to obtain a final grade, laboratory practices are mandatory in all cases.
It is considered that a student will get the grade Not Presented when the assessment of evaluation activities carried out do not allow it to achieve the overall grade of 5 on the assumption that he had obtained the highest grade in all of them. For example, if a student only attends classes and laboratory practices but only examines one of the partial theory, he would have participated in activities that did not provide 50% of the note (see table below) and would have a rating of Not Presented.
To be eligible for the retake process, the student should have been previously evaluated in a set of activities equaling at least two thirds of the final score of the course or module. Thus, the student will be graded as "No Avaluable" if the weighthin of all conducted evaluation activities is less than 67% of the final score.
Rules for improving your mark:
It is possible to improve the note of the midterms exam on the occasion of the Recovery Examination. The second note obtained will be considered as final if this one is higher than the one obtained in the first test.
When the obtained note at the second chance is less than 1 point or more than the first note obtained, the final note considered will be the average of the two notes.
The student will have 10 minutes at the start of the test to decide whether or not to perform the test.
In the decision of the final mark, it will also be considered as an additional criterion the attitude of the students in the class throughout the course.
The students that have passed the practicum or continued evaluation from previous years will not have to attend again the lab course or perform the continued evaluation.
Calculation of the final Mark
Final mark = T * + 0.65 AVT * 0.05 + Probl * 0.15 + AVP * 0.05 + Pract * 0.1
T (Final theory mark: it may be the average of 2 partial or a final exam)
AVT-final mark of delivery of responses of continuous assessment tests of the theory
Probl-final mark of exam problems (can be the average of 2 partial or final exam)
AVP (continuous assessment of problems mark)
Pract-practice mark
To pass the course the final mark should be ≥ 5
Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Continous evaluation | 10 | 0.5 | 0.02 | 19, 5 |
Practicum questionaire | 10 | 1 | 0.04 | 1, 12, 3, 23, 13, 8, 9, 11, 4, 21, 2, 24, 15, 20, 22, 26, 7 |
Problems Exam | 10 | 1 | 0.04 | 3, 5, 20, 6 |
Synthesis project | 10 | 0.5 | 0.02 | 1, 25, 3, 13, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 5, 20, 27 |
Theory Partial or final Exams | 60 | 2 | 0.08 | 10, 17, 19, 5 |
Basic bibliography
Berg, J.M., Tymoczko,J.L., Stryer, L "Biochemistry" (2019). 9th ed. Freeman.
Berg, J.M., Tymoczko, J.L. i Stryer, L. "Bioquímica" (2013). 7ª edició, Barcelona. Ed. Reverté (Traducció de la 7ª edició anglesa).
Berg, J.M., Tymoczko,J.L., Gatto, G.J. and Stryer, L "Biochemistry" (2015). 8th ed. Freeman.
Mathews, Ch.K., van Holde, K.E. "Biochemistry" (2012)English 4th ed.
Mathews, Ch.K., van Holde, K.E. "Bioquímica" (2013) Castellà 4ed (accessible com ebook des de biblioteca UAB).
Nelson, D.L. i Cox, M.M. "Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry" (2017). 7th ed. W.H. Freeman & Co.
Nelson, D.L. and Cox, M.M. "Lehninger-Principios de Bioquímica" (2018) 7a Ed. Omega.
Complementary Bibliography:
Integration and control of metabolism / Naa A. Adamafio, Laud K. N. Okine, Jonathan P. Adjimani. iUniverse 2012
Labster Virtual Lab Experiments:Basic Biochemistry. Aaron Gardner · Wilko Duprez Sarah Stauff er · Dewi Ayu Kencana Ungu Frederik Clauson-Kaas. Springer 2019. EBook accessible a la biblioteca UAB
The Leaf: A Platform for Performing Photosynthesis. William W. Adams III, Ichiro Terashima. Springer 2018. EBook accessible a la biblioteca UAB
Web links
You will find updated links in the Moodle/Virtual Campus section.
No specific software is required