The Molecular and Structural Basis of Disease

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Understand the molecular processes underpinning epigenetic and how they can contribute to disease.
• Molecular understanding of diabetes and insulin.
• An ability to critically evaluate and discuss current research centred on our molecular understanding of disease.
• Understand the molecular processes that lead to development of amyloid diseases and demonstrate how this knowledge is driving the development of potential therapeutic strategies
• Provide a molecular description of viral infection and demonstrate how this has contributed to the development of therapeutic compounds.
• Describe the molecular details of selected protein kinases and their inhibitors in cancer development and treatment.

The course provides an insight into how molecular studies can be employed to further medical research and aid in the development of novel treatments and therapeutics. The course will cover a number of areas including the role of epigenetic in disease and how it is studied, amyloid diseases, the role of kinases in cancer, molecular understanding of diabetes, viral and bacterial infections.

The lectures will: (i) emphasise selected medical examples where biochemical knowledge has provided an essential foundation for the understanding or management of human disease; (ii) describe the different types of epigenetic diseases and detail how they are identified and characterised; (iii) explain how our detailed knowledge of the molecular structure of enzymes and proteins has led to a molecular description of disease and infection, and (iv) how this molecular understanding of disease has contributed to knowledge based treatment strategies and the design of new therapeutics.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.