InternationalSchool of Advanced Molecular and Systems BioMedicine 2011
FINAL EXAMINATION
1) Why are targeted cancer therapies not working for the majority of solid tumors in the routine cancer care?
2) Drug sensitivity testing is a routine procedure in the selection of optimal therapies for patients with bacterial infectious diseases. Why is it not so easy to carry out drug sensitivity testing for cancer?
3) Hypothetically, as a researcher, you discover that there are extracellular vesicles, like exosomes, contain RNA. How do you proceed in order to identify the RNA content of these vesicles and find out whether these vesicles transfer genetic materials (RNA) between cells?
4) After a while, you discover that these vesicles, originated from human, are capable of delivering exogenous nucleic acids (e.g. siRNA) to body cells. Can they (the vesicles) be used for the treatment of diseases? How?
6) La proteomica differenziale prevede:
(a) Lo sviluppo di nuove metodologie separative
(b) Costruzione di mappe di riferimento delle proteine espresse in tessuti umani e animali
(c) Studio proteomico per l’identificazione di biomarkers e nuovi targets nella diagnosi e terapia dei tumori.
7) Quali delle seguenti applicazioni non è pertinente alla proteomica:
(a) seguire l’efficacia dei trattamenti farmacologici
(b) identificare nuovi marcatori diagnostici
(c) curare patologie specifiche
8) Mutations or polymorphisms can affect the splicing process only if they are
(a) in exons or in introns
(b) at the exon/intron boundaries
(c) at 5' or 3' splice sites
(d)in double-stranded RNA structures
9) Splicing pattern alterations
(a)are usually well tolerated
(b) are avoided by robustness of the genetic code
(c) at most, can give rise to additional alternative transcripts
(d) can completely abolish transcripts related to the functional proteins
10) BCR/ABL is a therapeutic target in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). The drug Imatinib binds to ABL and inhibits its kinase activity. What is the MOST COMMON mechanism of drug resistance in CML patients treated with Imatinib?
(a) changes occur in the metabolism of the drug that make it inactive
(b)secondary mutations occur in ABL which prevent the drug from binding
(c) CML cells lose the ABL gene which prevents the drug from binding
(d)all of the above
11) The paper describing the first cancer genome was published in 2008. Since then many researchers have turned their attention to sequencing just the exonic regions of the genome. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?
(a) Exome sequencing produces high levels of coverage, which is suitable for detecting mutations
(b) Genome sequencing allows a more detailed view of structural alterations than exome sequencing.
(c)Mutations that occur outside of exons are not important.
(d) The genetic landscape of cancer is complex; there are many genes that are mutated at low frequency.
12) Which activity do microRNA do?
(a) encoding proteins
(b)non-functional
(c) gene silencing
(d) enzymatic activity
13) Can you have false positives using the chemical-based approach for nucleic acid detection?
(a) yes
(b) no
(c) yes, but only if RNA is detected
(d) yes, but only if DNA is detected
14) siRNA-microspheres conjugates are able to:
(a) Cross cell membrane
(b) Silence expression of a specific protein
(c) a) and b) are true
(d) a) and b) are false
15) Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) are a tool for regenerative medicine based on:
(a) the generation of adult somatic cells by reprogrammation of pluripotent stem cells
(b) the generation of pluripotent stem cells by reprogrammation of adult somatic cells
(c) the generation of adult somatic cells by reprogrammation ofadult somatic cells