Course catalogue doctoral education - VT24
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| Title | Nucleic Acid Chemistry and Therapy |
|---|---|
| Course number | 5737 |
| Programme | Utveckling och regeneration (DevReg) |
| Language | English |
| Credits | 3.0 |
| Date | 2024-02-05 -- 2024-02-23 | Responsible KI department | Institutionen för laboratoriemedicin |
| Specific entry requirements | |
| Purpose of the course | The purpose of the course is to enable participants to aquire good and up to date knowledge of nucleic acid chemistry and nucleic acid therapy. The intention is to increase general knowledge about nucleic acids and how these can undergo different reactions as well as how oligonucleotides are chemically synthesized and modified for therapeutic or other use. We expect that this will stimulate and inspire the students in their own research whether they work on nucleic acid biology, therapy, analyse nucleic acids or use nucleic acids/oligonucleotides as tools for investigations. It is an intention to increase understanding of nucleic acids, how these molecules work and how they can be used in therapy. In addition, knowledge on how oligonucleotides are synthesized and how these can be modified will enhance the insight and enable the students to improve their use of oligonucleotides as tools or potential therapeutics. |
| Intended learning outcomes | At the end of the course the students
- should be able to explain the underlying chemistry of nucleic acids and how these can react at different parts of the structure. - should be able to explain how oligonucleotides can be synthesized and modified and why currently used modifications and conjugations are done. - should understand the different modalities of Nucleic acid therapies, a field that boomed in the last decade. - should be able to make selections of modifications and to design oligonucleotides/nucleic acids, for use as potential therapeutics. |
| Contents of the course | Introduction to Nucleic acid chemistry and nomenclature
Reactions at nucleic acid bases, ribose and deoxyribose sugars Reactions at phosphates and phosphate modifications Methods for synthesis of native and modified oligonucleotides Common modifications used for oligonucleotide therapy Introduction to Oligonucleotide therapy Antisense, pre-mRNA Splice-switching, siRNA, mRNA and DNA-targeting ON therapy mRNA and Crispr/Cas as potential therapeutic agents The problem of oligonucleotide delivery in therapy |
| Teaching and learning activities | The course consist of lectures by experts and seminars in the presence of experts on different aspects of nucleic acid chemistry and oligonucleotide/nucleic acid therapy as well as workshop activity including presentations by the students. Additional home work combined with individual and group activities in the class room will be a part of the learning. |
| Compulsory elements | The lectures, seminars and workshop activities with student presentations will be compulsory. Absence will be compensated by extra assignments. The student will also submit reports from a workshop in written form for review and approval, in connection to the student presentations. |
| Examination | Oral presentations on workshops as well as a written account with specific course related questions. |
| Literature and other teaching material | Lectures and handouts from the lectures as well as articles found during the workshops.
Recommended books: - Nucleic Acids in Chemistry and Biology. Editors: G M Blackburn, M J Gait, D Loakes, D M Williams. RSC Publishing - Advanced Organic Chemistry of Nucleic acids. Z. Shabarova, A Bogdanov, VCH Verlagsgesellschaft. In addition a couple of the most up to date review articles may be recommended to registered students by lecturers for the respective topics. |
| Number of students | 8 - 16 |
| Selection of students | Selection will be based on 1) the relevance of the course syllabus for the applicant's doctoral project (according to written motivation), 2) start date of doctoral studies (priority given to earlier start date) |
| More information | There will be a mix of scheduled activities and work on your own, including literature search and summation of a topic as a group activity. |
| Additional course leader | |
| Latest course evaluation | Not available |
| Course responsible |
Roger Strömberg Institutionen för laboratoriemedicin 0852481024 roger.stromberg@ki.se Neo, Hälsovägen 9 14183 Huddinge |
| Contact person | - |
