Definition and Measurement of Aging: Definition of aging and senescence processes. Identification of the characters associated with the aging process. Measurement of inter and intra-individual age-related changes. Theories of aging.
Genetic approaches to the study of aging and longevity: Gerontogens and longevity promoters. Human studies: genealogical, population, twins, sex, healthy centenarians, longitudinal studies. Animal experimental models: mouse and other rodents, saccharomices cerevisiae, caernorhabditis elegans, drosophila melanogaster.
Cellular aging: Cellular senescence and apoptosis. Telomeres and telomerase. Damage to the DNA molecule: endogenous and exogenous nature. DNA repair systems. Decline of repair systems during aging. The pleiotropic effect of the p53 protein in the aging process and carcinogenesis. Protein synthesis, post-translational modifications. DNA helicase.
Progeroid syndromes: Cockayne syndrome, trichothioodystrophy, Bloom syndrome, Werner syndrome, Alzheimer's syndrome. Molecular dysfunctions and therapeutic targets.
Genetics of Cancer Cells: The Clonal Origin of Cancer Cells. Genetic defects that interfere with genome stability, DNA repair and cell cycle regulation.
Introduction to pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics. Human genome sequencing and inter-individual variability. Individual variability in responses to drug therapy (efficacy and tolerability). Genes that influence drug response: genes coding for proteins involved in drug bioavailability (pharmacokinetics); genes that code for the therapeutic target of the drug (pharmacodynamics). Allelic variants in the human population. Polymorphisms of enzymes responsible for drug metabolism. Polymorphisms / mutations of the genes coding for the therapeutic target of the drug.
Polygenic complexity and modulators of the action of a drug. Predictive Medicine and Personalized Therapy. Sequencing of tumor genomes and selection of tumor inhibitors. Identification of biological targets with diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic value.

The course does not have a single reference text as it is not available. Therefore the teacher to deepen the topics covered on the following texts:- Chimica farmaceutica (Patrick) di Edises
- Le basi farmacologiche della terapia (Goodman & Gilman)
- Principles of Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics, Edited by Russ B. Altman, Stanford University, California, David Flockhart, Indiana University, David B. Goldstein, Duke University, North Carolina, Cambridge University Press.
In addition the teacher will provide specific scientific articles during the course