Syllabus
Definition of life
Origin of life
Sustainability of life - metabolism
Strategies of energetic metabolism Information molecules
From nucleic acid to protein - central dogma of molecular biology
Protein biology
Concept of conformation change - regulation of enzyme activity, molecular machines
Cytoskeleton and cell mobility
Vesicular trafficking
Cell signalling
Cell cycle and its regulation
E pluribus unum - general cell biology principles under specific conditions (in differentiated organism in particular cell types or separate taxa)
Annotation
The course From molecules to cells provides a definition of life in the context of biochemistry and cell biology. It covers the basics of molecular mechanisms behind the complexity, sustainability and heredity of the living organisms including evolutionary principles and phenomenon of the origin of life.
It covers the biology of prokaryotes and eukaryotes emphasizing the interplay between the structure and function on the seminal topics like biosynthesis and transformation of cellular components and organelles; cell growth and oncogenic transformation; transport, receptors, and cell signaling; the cytoskeleton, the extracellular matrix, and cell movements; chromatin structure and RNA synthesis. The course From molecules to cells set the stage for follow-up courses, particularly From cells to organisms.
The course is built from topical blocks (see Syllabus) each of them consisting of lecture (3h) and workshop focused on primary literature as a Q&A session(1h).