Biomedical curriculum
The Curriculum provides a solid knowledge on complex biological systems focused on structural and functional biochemistry of proteins and nucleic acids, integrating notions focused on protein/ligand interactions (i.e. salivary proteins, or interaction viral proteins/small molecules), protein/protein interactions (i.e. viral vs cellular proteins interactions), proteins/nucleic acid interactions (i.e. for proteins involved in autoimmune diseases, RNA for proteins involved in innate immune system down-regulation).
More specifically, the investigational areas for this curriculum are:
- study of the proteome of biological fluids, human cells or tissues, using top-down and bottom-up proteomic approaches in order to obtain protein profiles useful for the identification of possible biomarkers for the diagnosis of different pathologies;
- characterization of the acid-insoluble fraction of the proteome of biological fluids, cells, and tissues by two-dimensional electrophoresis to highlight protein biomarkers of specific diseases;
- study of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes coding for proteins present in biological fluids;
- analysis of human genomic sequences of retroviral origin involved with autoimmune diseases widespread in Sardinia;
- identification and functional characterization of regulatory proteins involved in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases;
- identification and characterization of new viral targets for therapeutic purposes using biological and computational techniques and identification of new antiviral drugs;
- evaluation of the inhibitory activity of newly synthesized compounds against tyrosinase and search for bioactive substances in plant extracts.