Learning objectives
The course aims to provide the student with the essential elements of chemistry needed to approach the following course of biochemistry. The course is divided into two modules whose specific objectives are reported below.
CHEMISTRY: The student must demonstrate understanding of the foundational concepts of general chemistry and to know how to apply both in the resolution of exercises (stoichiometry, balancing reactions, thermodynamic measurements) and in describing the studied phenomena.
PROPAEDEUTIC CHEMISTRY BIOCHEMISTRY: The module 'Propaedeutic Biochemistry', is part of the integrated course 'Propaedeutic Chemistry Biochemistry'. The main objective of the course is to provide the student with the fundamentals of organic chemistry in view of the subsequent course of Veterinary Biochemistry. The course will start from the different hybridization states of the carbon atom, and its ability to form complex compounds through covalent bonds with other atoms and/or substituents. The structures, chemical and physical properties, and reactivity of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, ethers, aldehydes, ketones, amines, carboxylic acids and their derivatives will then be subjects of the course. A further chapter will concern the isomers of molecules of organic molecules (conformational, geometric and optical isomers). Particular emphasis will be given to the intermolecular forces (dipole-dipole interactions, Van Der Waals interactions and hydrogen bonds) that are responsible for the aggregation of both organic and biological matter, and for the stabilization of the conformations of the structure of macromolecules.