• Classifying microorganisms and identifying the structures and/or tasks they need to perform to carry out metabolic functions, reproduce, and cause an infection.
• Identifying the different microorganism-host relationships, distinguishing useful associations from potentially detrimental ones.
• Examining the key factors that enable the spread of microbes, linking them to the biological traits and to the level of environmental resistance.
• Correlating the occurrence of mutations and the transfer of genetic material to pathogenic activity and resistance to antimicrobial drugs.
• Mastering the good manufacturing practices and guidelines for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products.

Knowledge of cell biology

Mandatory

Introduction to microbiology

• General classification of microrganisms: Archeae, Bacteria, Eukarya.

• Microrganisms and their natural habitats.

• Impact of microbes on humans.

• Discoveries in microbiological field.

The prokaryotic cell

• Size, shape, and states of aggregation.

• Fundamental components (nucleoid, cytoplasmic membrane, cell wall).

• Accessory structures (capsule and glycocalyx, pili and fimbriae, flagella and motion of the bacterical cell).

• Structure and synthesis of peptidoglycan. The outer shells in Gram-negative bacteria and lipopolysaccharide. The outer shells in Gram-positive bacteria and teichoic acids. Permeability and periplasmic space. The outer shells in mycobacteria. 

Microbes' genetics

• General features of the bacterial genome.

• Chromosome and plasmids.

• Mutations and transposable elements: insertion sequences, transposons and invertible elements.

• Intercellular genetic material tranfer: transformation, transduction and bacterial conjugation.

Microbes' nutrition and metabolism

• Physical and environmental factors that impact on the bacterial growth.

• Aerobic and anaerobic metabolism.

• Energy sources for microbes.

• Respiration and fermentation pathways.

Bacterial reproduction and growth 

• Bacterial division.

• Growth curve of a bacterial population.

• Survival strategies (the spore and the biofilm).

Microrganism-host relationships

• Biological associations and links beetwen microrganism and host.

• Infection sources.

• Diseases’ transmissibility.

• The infectious process (pathogenicity, virulence factors).

• Pathogenic activity: adhesion and penetration.

Host response to infections and immunity

• Host defenses against infection (innate and adaptive immunity).

• Other defense mechanisms (inflammation and fever).

• Defeating the host defense mechanism.

• Passive immunization (immunoglobulins and sera).

• Active immunization (vaccines).

Human microbiota and microbiome

• Composition and physiology of human microbiota.

• Role of microbiota in different body regions.

• Bi-directional relationship of microbiota with other organs (gut-brain axis).

• Dysbioses and their role in the onset of pathologies and metabolic disorders.

• Probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics.

Principles of bacteriological diagnostics

• Direct and indirect identification of pathogens.

• Examination and staining under a microscope.

• Characteristics and composition of culture media and their classification.

• Antibiotic susceptibility test (diffusion and diluition tecniques).

Sterilization and disinfection

• Sterilization through physical, chemical and mechanical methods, and sterility checks.

• Sterilization in the pharmaceutical industry (mandatory sterile preparations, sterility checks, tests for the detection of bacterial endotoxins).

• Microbial contamination of non-sterile products assessment.

• Disinfectants, antiseptics and preservatives.

• Medicines’ good manufacturing rules and practices (environmental, personnel, and raw material requirements).

Antibacterial drugs

• Classification and mechanism of action in main antibacterial drugs.

• Mechanisms of bacteria resistance to antibiotics.

• A few notes on the epidemiology of infectious diseases.

• Community-acquired and nosocomial-acquired infections.

Systematic bacteriology

Taxonomy, features, pathogenicity, primary diseases, antibiotic- sensitivity and antibiotic-resistance of the genera Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Enterococcus, Neisseria, Bordetella, Legionella, Brucella, Corynebacterium, Helicobacter, Mycobacterium, Vibrio, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Helicobacter, Mycoplasma, Chlamydiaceae, Rickettsiales, Spirochetales.

Viruses

• Viral structure, characteristics and classification. 

• Replicative strategies used by the various classes of Dna and RNA viruses for replication.

• Pathogenesis of viral infections and host cell damage.

• Host defenses against viral infection (interferon).

• Bacteriophages.

• Prions.

• Cultivation of viruses.

• Mechanism of action and spectrum of activity in main antiviral drugs.

Systematic virology

Taxonomy, features, pathogenicity, primary diseases, prophylaxis and therapy of the genera Poxvirus, Herpesvirus, Adenovirus, Papillomavirus, Paramyxovirus, Togavirus, Orthomyxovirus, Rhabdovirus, Rhinovirus, Poliovirus, Coronavirus, Filovirus, Lentivirus (HIV) and major liver viruses (HAV, HBV, HCV, HDV, HEV, HGV).

Fungi

• Taxonomy, classification, morphology, and reproduction.

• Fungal dimorphism.

• Classification of mycoses (superficial, cutaneous, subcutaneous, systemic).

• Immunosuppression and opportunistic mycoses.

• Fungal toxicology (mycetism and mycotoxins).

• The main fungi of medical interest: Candida, Aspergillus, Cryptococcus, zygomycetes and dermatophytes.

• Mechanism of action and spectrum of activity in main antifungal drugs.

Protozoa

• Taxonomy, classification, morphology, and reproduction.

• Main parasitic protozoa of medical interest: flagellates with intestinal and genitourinary localization, haemoflagellates, amoebae, sporozoans, ciliates.

• Mechanism of action and spectrum of activity in main antiprotozoal drugs.

Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases associated with climate change and globalization.

N. Carlone – R. Pompei – V. Tullio

Microbiologia Farmaceutica III edizione 

Edises Università

or

G. Antonelli – M. Clementi – G. Pozzi – G.M. Rossolini

Principi di Microbiologia Medica, quarta edizione

Casa Editrice Ambrosiana

The student has the option of selecting another textbook.

Written and oral exam

Examples of multiple-choice question for written exam:

We refer to the spread of a pathogenic microorganism as "vertical" transmission of an infection:
A. from animal to human
B. from the respiratory system's upper to lower half
C. from one organ of the same person to another
D. from a pregnant woman to her child during or right after

Which of these microorganisms is halophilic?
A. Streptococcus pyogenes
B. Staphylococcus aureus
C. Neisseria gonorrhoeae
D. Escherichia coli

Is toxoplasma gondii a virus?
• Real
• False

Examples of open-ended questions, whether written or oral exam:

Explain the bacterial cell's internal structures in detail.
Describe a virus's structural makeup.
What distinguishing features do prokaryotic organisms have?