Degree Course: BIOTECNOLOGIE PER LA SICUREZZA E LA QUALITA' AGRO-ALIMENTARE (LM-7) Syllabus for A.Y. 2018/2019  

The different families of natural substances are introduced on the basis of the precursors and the main metabolic sequences that lead to their biosynthesis. For each family, structural aspects, properties, biological activities and applications in the agronomic, food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical fields are examined. Among the various classes of compounds, phenolic substances are deepened and among the activities, the antioxidant property. The course includes laboratory exercises focused on extraction techniques, purification and structural characterization of natural substances.

Chimica, Biosintesi e Bioattività delle Sostanze Naturali - P. M. Dewick, Piccin. Edizione italiana a cura di E. Fattorusso

The course is mainly divided into three sections: an initial more general section, a specific section focused on the use of plants for the production of recombinant proteins and a third section where students present in the classroom, in Italian, a scientific paper written in English. Moreover during the course three seminars, taught by guest experts, are planned on specific topics.
In the initial section general aims of pharmaceutical biotechnology and pharmaceuticals obtained through biotechnological production are introduced, in this regard some definitions of Biopharmaceutical are provided together with specific examples and the general picture of their worldwide market. In addition, biotech drugs are compared to traditional drugs with particular reference to new approaches for their realization. In this context also recapitulative concepts on recombinant DNA technology strictly applied to pharmaceuticals are provided. All main biological systems for production are analysed: bacteria especially E. coli, yeasts, insect cells, different types of mammalian cells and chicken eggs. Production issues for large scale issues at both upstream and downstream processing level are also addressed in the light of international quality standards and of "Good Manufacturing Practices" (GMP) procedures. In particular specific lessons are dedicated to biofermentations, product processing, techniques of analysis and purification of biological macromolecules and their formulation for their release on the market. After an introduction to immunity, immunogenicity and the immune system of humans, all the main types of biopharmaceuticals: vaccines, polyclonal antibodies, monoclonal antibodies, immunomodulatory proteins and enzymes, in the context of the pathologies to which these drugs are directed to, are defined and described also using specific case studies. At the conclusion of the general section recent developments of nanotechnology in biomedicine and diagnostics and possible future applications in the biopharmaceutical industry are discussed.
The second section, all centered on the use of plants for the expression of recombinant polypeptides with pharmaceutical activity, starts with the in depth discussion of plant viruses from a molecular point of view for the importance they have had and continue to have in the development of expression systems. In particular the various strategies of expression and replication of the best known plant viruses are addressed and the systems that make use of these viruses for the heterologous transient expression in plants analyzed in detail. Subsequently the most used plants in biopharmaceutical development (tobacco, benthamiana, rice, maize, potato and tomato) and the different types of genetic modification applicable to these species are addressed (stable nuclear transformation, plastid transformation and transient transformation). Numerous case studies concerning plants developed biopharmaceuticals will be presented and analyzed in detail to illustrate the different approaches in relation to the type of biopharmaceutical, the pathology and the receiving species (for human or veterinary use).
The third section focuses on the acquisition of skills in the analysis of scientific international manuscripts and on the acquisition of skills in the presentation and exposure of technical content. To this end, students choose an article from a list of publications selected by the teacher and prepare a power point presentation of about 20 minutes to explain to their class mates, the general theme, the experimental approach, the results and prospects of the work. All selected publications concern the design, implementation and development of biopharmaceuticals in plants.
The three seminars that take place during the course are: i) elements of immunology held by Dr. Selene Baschieri from the ENEA Casaccia research center; ii) principles of vaccinology held by Dr. Chiara Lico from ENEA Casaccia research center.

Biotecnologie farmaceutiche; Crommelin D. J., Sindelar R. D.; Zanichelli; 2000; ISBN: 8808094197.

Elementi di Virologia Vegetale; Giunchedi, Conti, Gallitelli, Martelli; 2007; ISBN: 978-88-299-1838-6.

Spectroscopic Methods
Absorption spectroscopy: basic principles, spectroscopic analysis of biopolymers, absorption and conformation. Optical activity. Rotatory optical dispersion and circular dichroism: application to biological systems. Fluorescence spectroscopy: basic principles, fluorescence intensity, fluorophores, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) as spectroscopic ruler, fluorescence anisotropy. Case studies in fluorescence spectroscopy of biomolecules. NMR Spectroscopy: basic concepts, analysis of 1D NMR spectra. 2D and ND NMR spectroscopy: experiments and applications to solve protein structure and dynamics. Computational methods to determine 3D structure from NMR data.

Cantor and Schimmel: Biopysical Chemistry Parts I, II and III. W.H Freeman and Company, San Francisco CA. Zaccai, Serdyuk
Zaccai: Methods in Molecular Biophysics Cambridge (II Ed)
Freifelder, D., Physical Biochemistry, W.H Freeman and Company, New York. ·
T. E. Creighton, Proteins: Structures and Molecular Properties. W.H Freeman and Company, New York. J.
Cavanagh,W.J. Fairbrother, A.G. Palmer III, N.J. Skelton, Protein NMR Spectroscopy: Principles and Practice, Academic Press, inc.

Comparative immunology. Adapative and innate immunity. Main steps in the evolution of the immune system. Immunological assay for diagnostic. Antibodies from animal species. Drugs from animal species, case studies: antimicrobial peptides, anti-tumoral molecules, silicateins. EU projects in animal biotechnology.

Some power point presentations will be available from the lecturer of the course.