Biosciences Study guides, Class notes & Summaries

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Neuroscience (NEU) module. Learn what epilepsy is and what steps forward have been made in the management of the condition. Learning outcomes: - Identify the major neurotransmitters in the human nervous system and some of the main receptors. - Describe the etiology and presentation of epilepsy. - Explain the physiological basis of EEG and how it is used to assess seizures. - Analyse the different ty...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, cardiovascular and thoracic biology (CTB) module. Lecture 7 on cell biology of the cardiovascular system: how cellular components of the cardiovascular system help maintain vascular homeostasis. Homeostasis is a healthy state that is maintained by the constant adjustment of biochemical and physiological pathways. An example of homeostasis is the maintenance of a constant blood pressure in the human body. lear...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Neuroscience (NEU) module. Look at the development of the nervous system, with a focus on understanding the structural organisation of the brain and how new neurons and synaptic connections are formed. Learning objectives: LO1: Recognise which embryonic layer gives rise to the nervous system and summarise the formation of the neural tube and neural crest. LO2: Outline how the forebrain, midbrain and hindbra...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, genetics and genomics (GEN) module. Our DNA is under constant threat of being damaged by exogenous and endogenous insults. We have some mechanisms that provide protection from these insults, but there are limits to what they can achieve. In these notes, we consider how DNA damage arises, how it can be avoided, what it actually looks like, and how it is repaired. We also see how mutations in DNA repair genes are ass...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Pharmacology module. PHAR 6, hypertension: treatments that are currently prescribed for hypertension, focusing on their pharmacodynamics to understand how these different drugs lower blood pressure and considering some of their side effects and important factors to consider when choosing treatment. - Explain the cardiovascular control of blood pressure and describe how it is measured - Classify the various stag...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Neuroscience (NEU) module. The afferent (sensory) and efferent (motor) divisions of the nervous system provide vital information about our outside world and allow us to implement an appropriate behaviour. We will look at the sensory system in the first part of this module (a). learning outcomes: LO1: List and define the major somatosensory modalities. LO2: Explain the neurophysiological terms: receptor, st...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, cardiovascular and thoracic biology (CTB) module. Lecture 3 on ventilation and gas transport: fundamental processes required to achieve effective breathing and gas transport. These processes enable oxygen to get from the atmosphere to the human cells using it for aerobic energy production, and for carbon dioxide (a waste product) to go the other way. Learning objectives: LO1: Differentiate between different f...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, genetics and genomics (GEN) module. Focus on nuclear chromosomes: learn how 2 metres of DNA is somehow packaged into these tiny chromosomes and understand some key features of chromosomes that determine their structure and function. Understand the differences between autosomes, sex chromosomes and mitochondrial chromosomes, and their association with disease. learning objectives: - Recall the changes in numbe...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Neuroscience (NEU) module. One of the great health challenges of our times is to cope with the increasingly prevalent age-related disorders as life expectancy rises globally. Neurodegenerative diseases are among the most devastating of those, leading to relentless impairment of the nervous system’s function, affecting the ability to lead independent lives, and eventually death. Despite large research efforts in t...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences, 2nd year, Cancer Biology (CBIO) module A crucial characteristic of every living cell is its ability to communicate with neighbouring cells. This interchange of information between a cell and its environment is what is known as cellular signalling. Specifically, a cell must be able to give precise responses to the environmental signals that it is continually receiving. Cell signalling pathways regulate all the key processes in...