Applied pharmacology to biotechnology

The course intends to provide students with the most recent applications of biotechology to pharmacology, with emphasis on new biotechnological drugs, drug discovery and individualization of drug therapies on the basis of patients genotype (pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics).

The students will learn about a selection of methodological approaches to study intracellular signalling pathways that are activated by ligand-receptor interaction in living cells, organotypic slices and entire organisms. When mastered, these techniques (in conjunction with the abilities and the competencies derived from the other courses) will allow the student to have a strong background on high-quality functional assays -based on optical imaging techniques- to study cellular responses triggered by the exposure to specific endogenous agonist or drugs.
The students will learn about up-to-date background knowledge needed for the full comprehension of the rapid progress of biotechnological drugs. Students will understand the evolution of the field with an historical perspective view showing the parallel development that drug and molecular biology fields experienced until their final merging in the new discipline. The protein and nucleic acid engineering, and the application of molecular biology in the generation of innovative therapies will be considered starting from approved biotechnological drugs.
Finally the students will learn about the genetic basis of drug responses, with deep insights into the use of pharmacogenetics for therapy personalization.