Modern trends in molecular biology and biotechnology I

Objectives and competences

The primary aim of the course is to transmit state of art knowledge in the filed of molecular genetics, molecular biology and biotechnology. Students have the possibility to interact an international panel of scientist expert in different disciplines. The participation of activities at ICGEB is an invaluable occasion of scientific and cultural growth offered to students that are strongly advised to actively participate to the scientific community within an international research centre.

To improve student critic attitude, a series of Journal Clubs is proposed, where PhD students study, understand and discuss selected literature. Journal clubs distributed throughout the year, and are chaired by a different group leaders.

Student can propose a seminar wish list to the PhD organizer committee for consideration and selection.
Student can propose to present a scientific article related to his/her own interest.

Prerequisites

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Content

• Seminars in different fields of molecular biology, molecular genetics, biomedicine and biotechnology given by invited international speakers top experts in the field.
• Journal Clubs, chaired by different lab group leaders. The selected literature could be either related to one of the seminar or selected among interesting papers recently published.
• Integration in the scientific cultural and research community

Intended learning outcomes

Knowledge of the large complexity of a broad range of topics in molecular genetics, biology ad biotechnology. Students learn ways of interactive and critic scientific discussion with scientists. It is expected that students critically interact during seminars with questions and discussion. Journal club activities reinforce communication skills and critical interpretation of a published literature.

Readings

Selected literature related to scientific seminars and Journal Clubs.

Assessment

Active attendance to proposed activities. 100%

Lecturer's references

Distinguished invited speakers and scientists in molecular biology and biotechology at the University of Nova Gorica and ICGEB.

Alessandro Marcello is Associate Professor in the field of molecular biology at the University of Nova Gorica.

Selected Bibliography:

  1. Licastro D, Rajasekharan S, Dal Monego S, Segat L, D'Agaro P, Marcello A. 2020. Isolation and Full-Length Genome Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 from COVID-19 Cases in Northern Italy. J Virol. 94(11):e00543-20. doi: 10.1128/JVI.00543-20
  2. Carletti T, Zakaria MK, Faoro V, Reale L, Kazungu Y, Licastro D, Marcello A. 2019. Viral priming of cell intrinsic innate antiviral signaling by the unfolded protein response. Nat Commun. 10(1):3889. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11663-2.
  3. Sarracino A, Gharu L, Kula A, Pasternak AO, Avettand-Fenoel V, Rouzioux C, Bardina M, De Wit S, Benkirane M, Berkhout B, Van Lint C, Marcello A. 2018 Posttranscriptional regulation of HIV-1 gene expression during replication and reactivation from latency by nuclear matrix protein MATR3. MBio. 13;9(6).
  4. Zakaria MK, Carletti T, Marcello A. 2018. Cellular Targets for the Treatment of Flavivirus Infections. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 8:398. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2018.00398.
  5. Çevik RE, Cesarec M, Filipe A, Licastro D, McLauchlan J and Marcello A. 2017. Hepatitis C virus NS5A targets the nucleosome assembly protein NAP1L1 to control the innate cellular response, J Virol. doi: 10.1128/JVI.00880-17