BSc Biomedical Sciences / Course details

Major diseases of man such as diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis, and fibrosis, are increasingly significant contributors to morbidity and mortality in the western world. Developing treatments for these diseases is a major challenge to the pharmaceutical industry and there is great interest in the biochemistry underlying their pathogenesis.

This unit aims to describe the biochemistry of these common diseases and highlight how our current understanding of disease mechanisms informs the development of novel therapies.

Students should have an understanding of the biochemical basis of a number of major diseases of man and appreciate how and why specific disease mechanisms are being targeted in the development of new treatments.

A significant proportion of this course will be delivered in the form of directed reading supported by lectures and will focus on biochemical aspects of disease mechanisms and potential therapies relating to:

Diabetes and Obesity: metabolic syndrome, beta cells and insulin secretion, insulin resistance, type II diabetes, secondary complications of diabetes.

Vascular disease: Atherosclerosis, dyslipidaemia, vascular calcification, aberrant angiogenesis.

Fibrotic disease: ECM biology in tissue homeostasis, remodelling, repair and fibrosis.

Aberrant TGF-beta signalling: Lung fibrosis and Marfan Syndrome.

Protein folding/misfolding diseases: amyloid diseases, prion disease, gain and loss of function.

Written exam (1-hour 45 minute) synchronous online exam answering one essay question from a choice of 3) 70%

Oral assessment/presentation 20%

MCQ online assessment (4 x 2.5%) 10%

Group feedback will be given for the assessment and an online discussion forum on Blackboard or Padlet will be available to facilitate communication amongst students and teaching staff.

The final lecture of the course will be attended by all lecturers. The focus will be to provide a review of the previous year’s exam paper and guidance on exam preparation.

Review papers and some primary literature will be provided on Blackboard to compliment the lecture topics.