1. komponenta

Lecture type	Total
Lectures	15
Practicum	15
Seminar	15

Course Objective:
Within this course, students will gain insight into various mechanisms of cell differentiation. They will become thoroughly familiar with the mechanisms of cell differentiation during embryonic development, cell differentiation in adult organisms, and cell dedifferentiation.

Course Content:
Classes are held in a condensed format.

Lectures
1) Introduction to cell differentiation - examples of cell differentiation, historical overview of major discoveries;
2) Mechanisms of cell differentiation - transcription factors, epigenetic mechanisms, signaling pathways, cell interactions, environmental factors, etc.;
3) Stem cells - types of stem cells and their differentiation into specific cell types;
4) Embryonic development - mechanisms of cell differentiation during embryonic development;
5) Gametogenesis - mechanisms of gamete formation in both sexes;
6) Hematopoiesis - mechanisms of blood cell differentiation from hematopoietic stem cells;
7) Neurogenesis - mechanisms of neural cell differentiation from neural stem cells;
8) Mechanisms of cell dedifferentiation.

Exercises
1) Cultivation of two tumor cell lines representing two different stages of B-cell differentiation - NALM-6 (pre-B-cells) and ARH-77 (plasma cells);
2) Primer design for expression analysis of several genes encoding transcription factors and other proteins involved in B-cell differentiation;
3) RNA isolation using a commercial kit;
4) DNase treatment and reverse transcription;
5) Testing of designed primers using PCR;
6) Quantitative PCR for gene expression analysis.

Seminars
Students independently explore topics related to cell differentiation that were not covered during lectures. To prepare their seminars, students will use original research articles and review papers. Students publicly present their work in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and engage in discussion about the topic they have covered.

1. Molecular Biology of the Cell, Odabrana poglavlja., Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, Peter Walter, New York: Garland Publishing, 2002.
2. The Cell - A Molecular Approach, Odabrana poglavlja., Geoffrey M Cooper, Sinauer Associates, 2000.
3. Prezentacije s predavanja objavljene na web stranici predmeta, Marija Klasić.

Izborni kolegiji - Stanična biologija - Regular study - Molecular Biology