Comparative and Laboratory Animal Pathology

THEORETICAL OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of the course, the student shall know and understand at the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ levels, the aetiopathogenetic factors underlying structural and functional alterations of disease processes and the mechanisms of response to damage and related disorders. During the course, the student will acquire notions of general pathology and comparative morphopathology by applying a biotechnological approach to the study of degenerative, inflammatory, cancer and toxicity disease models.
PRACTICAL OBJECTIVES: The course will provide theoretical and practical knowledge of basic biomolecular methodologies applicable to experimental analysis alongside application skills in diagnostic and research for the study of animal diseases, clinical pathology and experimental, and translational medicine.

Students will gain knowledge of biochemical and molecular mechanisms of cell and tissue damage in major animal diseases, to recognize the corresponding macroscopic and microscopic lesions with a comparative approach useful in identifying spontaneous patterns of disease. Students will learn how to take specimens in order to better understand and answer the questions posed by research with major and specific focus on biotechnology research.
Upon completion of the course, the student will acquire fundamental knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying disease mechanisms and the basic techniques to study them including (a) blood smears and leukocyte formula in various animal species; (b) basic molecular pathology techniques applied to animal and experimental pathology; (c) basic clinical pathology techniques for hematochemical, urine and cytofluorimetric analyses; and (d) basic techniques for the study of experimental pathology in mouse models from a translational medicine perspective.