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The Course of Cell Biology is part of the PhD School in Molecular and Biomolecular  Sciences.
The research themes proposed in the Cell Biology curriculum are focused on current issues such as the study on:

• cancer cells and antiproliferative and/or cytotoxic effects of new molecules and their mechanisms of action,
• apoptotic and autophagic processes and physiological and pathological factors which trigger them,
• the properties and the potential of stem cells in the perspective of their use in regenerative medicine,
• genetic and epigenetic mechanisms which regulate differentiation in embryonic model systems,
• functions and mechanisms of action of molecules of biological and pharmacological interest and pathways that regulate their synthesis in eukaryotic systems,
• the search for new antibiotics through the study of metabolic pathways that regulate their production in actinomycetes,
• characterization of environmental bacterial communities and their functions in biogeochemical cycles and in interactions with eukaryotic organisms.

These issues are addressed with interdisciplinary approaches that integrate the skills present in the College of teachers.

The educational objective is to provide students of this curriculum with the more advanced theoretical and practical knowledge, at the international level, within the framework of the proposed research topics and with methodological and conceptual tools of investigation, to stimulate their critical capacity in the processing, analysis and interpretation of experimental data, to allow them to learn and use the most innovative experimental techniques (examples: proteomic analyses and transcriptome analysis, flow cytometry, microscopy, confocal microscopy).

Through the research and didactic activities, the curriculum students will gain knowledge of the cellular and molecular mechanisms which regulate differentiation, development and homeostasis of eukaryotic organisms, and whose alteration is the basis of many diseases, but they may also specialize in the study of prokaryotic systems, metabolic pathways that regulate their growth stages, interactions between bacteria, between bacteria and eukaryotic organisms, and between bacteria and environment.

The knowledge acquired during the PhD course will allow the students to engage both in the field of international research and in the world of professional activities relating to biomedical and biotechnology sectors.

The Cell Biology curriculum is part of the Italian network of PhDs NEIDOS (Italian Network of PhD Programs in Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences http://www.neidos.it/). This network promotes the development of high standards in the activities offered by the Italian programmes in Biomedicine and Biotechnology. NEIDOS spreads the themes of research of the Doctorates also with the aim to attract foreign students. NEIDOS operates under the auspices and through the active involvement of two prominent Italian Life Science Societies, the Association of Cell Biology and Differentiation (Associazione Biologia Cellulare e Differenziamento, ABCD) and the Italian Society of Biophysics and Molecular Biology (Società Italiana di Biofisica e Biologia Molecolare, SIBBM).

In addition, there is an agreement with the University of Bonn which allows German students to enroll in the Cellular Biology doctorate program and to take the degree (PhD) whenever the University of Bonn has the opportunity to fund a three-year doctoral scholarship.