The summerschool entitled "From genes to cells: a basic course of molecular, cellular and ultrastructural biology", will be a practical course covering biotechniques that can be applied to the study of several biological subjects related to cell biology, gene expression and function analysis, genotoxicity and ultrastructural observations.

The course will be divided in:

A theoretical part

organized in lectures covering modern technologies applied for: in situ analysis on mRNA expression in sections and whole organisms by using non-isotopic labelled probes; the study of gene function by "lossof function techniques"; main techniques of sample preparation for transmission electron microscopy, including fixation methods, embedding, sectioning,and micrograph images analysis; genotoxicity and ultrastructural observations.

A practical part

in which participants wil be hosted in the laboratories and will be directly involved in the design and execution of several experimental protocols regarding the main topics object of the lectures.

The school is open to all postgraduate students, especially to PhD students, post-doctoral  and senior researchers from Universities, research institutes, clinic and industries. Undergraduated students will be also welcome. Participants will be selected on the basis of their CV and are also encouraged to submit an abstract (optional) describing their own research or clinical activity. A session dedicated to oral presentations, selected from participants who submitted abstracts is also planned. At the end of the school, a prize will be assigned for the best oral presentation.

7 credit will be acknowledged by the University of Pisa, according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), upon a final test covering the major topics.