Cellular Metabolism and Disease

The interpretation of nutritional information relies on an understanding of how nutrients are metabolised and what can go wrong in disease states. The subject material covers the regulation of blood glucose concentration and the causes of diabetes; the generation of free-radicals and the importance of antioxidants in protecting proteins, lipids and DNA from oxidative damage; metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells, neurons and immune cells; metabolism in the gut: the role of the microbiota; metabolomics and other research methods for the study of metabolism.

• 1Describe the molecular basis of how humans handle nutrients via metabolism and compare these with disease states
• 2Explain the mechanisms and consequences of metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells, and in neurons and immune cells in both physiological and pathophysiological conditions
• 3Describe how the emerging field of metabolomics (the study of a range of metabolites in a cell or tissue) is being applied as a diagnostic tool, including a consideration of ethical issues such as study design, sample collection and data usage
• 4Explain how targeting critical events in metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells as the therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment
• 5Analyse experimental data to detect changes in metabolism
• 6Critically analyse of the current scientific literature on metabolomics and metabolic reprogramming in diseases.