Course content

Course description:
The course is targeted at PhD students with interests in the fields of molecular biology/physiology/medicine. The course attempts to provide the knowledge about how molecular mechanisms can be the cause of physiological processes and how these mechanisms are regulated, which is the so-called molecular physiology.
The PhD research program is often like "one gene, one PhD student." The idea behind this kind of research approach is that the whole of a living system can be understood by studying its individual parts, identifying the subset of genes and proteins that function in physiological context or malfunction to trigger disease. This so-called "mechanistic" approach has been conceived in hopes of understanding the biological system and of targeting the weak links in the system, fixing them, and eradicating the disease, referred as "molecular medicine."
As science and technology rapidly develop, there are more and more tools to intervene and more and more parameters to be measured. Currently, we are able to study the expression of thousands of genes or hundreds of proteins at a time by high-through-put microarray technologies, providing a far more detailed molecular snapshot of life inside normal and abnormal cells. We attempt to study how the millions of molecules inside cells are organized into vast protein networks whose collective whole is greater than the individual parts. To meet this need, a novel approach, the so-called "systems biology", has been developing based on molecular biology in its special concern for the information transfer and on molecular physiology for its particularly dealing with adaptive states of the cell and organism.

Learning outcome

1.Confront students with theoretical and methodological approaches applied to molecular physiology and systems biology.
2.Learn about recent ("state-of-the-art" or "to-be-done") research insights in molecular physiology and systems biology, particularly with respect to medicine.

Learning methods and activities

The course will provide rich opportunities, and flexible and individual activities to learn and discuss the molecular physiology and systems biology. It will emphasize this field representing a new approach to the medical research as compared with postgenomic biology, bioinformatics, "-omics", molecular physiology, and more.
The course is organised in combination of lectures, individual discussions with tutors and active self-learning.
Final exam will be an oral presentation of the student's own research study with focus on systems biology. the student's effort during the course will also be considerated in the exam evaluation.

Compulsory assignments

• Lectures
• Individual discussions with tutors
• Active self study

Recommended previous knowledge

Basic knowledge in physiology, molecular biology and molecular cell biology equivalent to MOL4010, BI1001, BI1004, BI1005, BI2012, BI2014, ZO2020, BO2020 and BI3016.

Required previous knowledge

Admission requirements:
Master degree or similar. Medical students at The Student Research Programme. Candidates with a lower degreee will be assessed individually. (Compare with Reccommended prev. knowledge)

Course materials

Reviews, original articles and prints of the lecture ppt with note pages.