Students develop molecular biological and biochemical methodological skills required for basic biomedical analysis. They can understand the respective analysis procedures and methods, plan, carry out and evaluate the results of the analysis. The students are able to evaluate whether the test material is suitable for the requested molecular biological analysis, the reagents and other materials have the required quality and to assess if the obtained nucleic acids are of good quality and they can critically rate the outcome of a polymerase chain reaction (in vitro amplification). The students understand the basics of sequencing techniques and are able to apply information technologies to validate their laboratory results and to evaluate sequence data. Students master independent interpretation of results and troubleshooting in case of unexpected results.

Modules of the 1st semester

• Preanalytics in molecular biology analysis;
• Theory of isolation and quantification of nucleic acids, in vitro amplification methods, detection of nucleic acids, sequencing, primer design, genomics
• Compilation of PCR protocols
• Planning, analysis and post-analysis of basic molecular biology techniques such as nucleic acid isolation, nucleic acid purification, concentration determination of nucleic acids, PCR including troubleshooting and assessment of results
• Bioinformatics in molecular biology, dealing with genetic databases (NCBI, Ensembl, primer design)
• Aspects of quality assurance, biological safety and hygiene, technical guidelines, documentation

Mülhardt C. (2013), Der Experimentator Molekularbiologie/Genomics, Spektrum;
Schartl M. et al. (2009), Biochemie und Molekularbiologie des Menschen, Thieme;
Schäfer U. et al. (2017), Molekularbiologie der Zelle, Wiley-VCH;
Jacobi B. (2010), Molekulare Zellbiologie - Basics, Elsevier;
Reinard T. (2010), Molekularbiologische Methoden 2.0, UTB;
Jansohn M. & Rothhämel S. (2012), Gentechnische Methoden: Eine Sammlung von Arbeitsanleitungen für das molekularbiologische Labor, Spektrum;
Books, journals and websites according to the current state of knowledge in the respective fields.

Lectures, laboratory exercises, reflections, discussions

Module examination