Experimental Translational Medicine BETA

Course goals

Upon completion of this block, the student will be able to:

• Explain the key concepts and theories of the subject under study; integrate and discuss these concepts and theories: predicting based on theory, forming theory based on research data, contributing to new insights based on this.

Skills
Upon completion of this block, the student will be able to:

• Collaborate interdisciplinary with students from different disciplines as well as with (medical) researchers; search for primary (peer-reviewed) scientific articles relevant to their own project and critically read and evaluate them; formulate new hypotheses based on literature and clinical data; determine good methods to approach questions from different angles; perform methods or techniques where the outcome is uncertain; report data in a lab journal; formulate conclusions based on literature and their own work; analyze, combine, integrate, and apply data in a scientific discussion; process scientific data in writing (scientific article); process scientific data in an oral presentation; articulate the (societal) relevance of the research, both in writing and orally.

Attitude
Upon completion of this block, the student will be able to:

• Feel responsible for their own research; collaborate interdisciplinary in a way that achieves the best possible group result; adopt a critical attitude towards themselves as well as towards fellow students; adhere disciplinarily to the rules within the research environment; handle the obtained results in an honest manner.

Content

Translational Medicine is the science that deals with the translation of (fundamental) scientific research to the patient, from bench to bedside; to society and back again. Translational Medicine is becoming increasingly a field where interdisciplinary collaboration is of essential importance. It requires a constant and optimal interaction between scientists, doctors, physician-researchers, and patients to ensure the translation of (fundamental) research to the clinic runs optimally.

In this interdisciplinary course, students from different disciplines collaborate in researching a largely misunderstood disease for which there is no good solution yet. This case is approached from various disciplines and perspectives within the biomedical domain, supported by various student research hubs. These are physical expertise spaces where students can conduct experimental lab research. From these hubs, there are short lines to researchers, patients, and other (non-academic) stakeholders. The expertise of these hubs, where students can move, ranges from medical technology, medical humanities, epidemiology, global and planetary health to a biomedical laboratory, 3D imaging/printing, and data science. Within the BETA biotechnology student research hub, the focus is on research on therapeutically active proteins, from biotechnological production and characterization to pharmacological research.
In the Experimental Translational Medicine course, student teams work together to develop or investigate a new medicine. The majority of the course consists of conducting research. Researchers, doctors, and patients are ready to guide students with their research. The aim is to gain new insights that can lead to new research lines and treatments for the diseases central to the course/cases.

Training in academic skills, the research cycle, and interdisciplinary collaboration play a prominent role. In the first two weeks of the course, hypotheses are collectively devised, and work plans formulated, using literature and patient clinical data. Under constant supervision of researchers and other stakeholders, students from different disciplines collaborate in interdisciplinary groups to test these hypotheses through various scientific approaches and methodologies. The experiments are documented, and the results jointly interpreted at regular intervals during work discussions. The course concludes with writing a report in a scientific article format, a lay report intended for patients (associations) and other societal stakeholders, and giving a final presentation to the patient, treating doctors, and other stakeholders. In short, this course provides a realistic insight into the execution of interdisciplinary scientific research in a relevant and current context and creates synergy between education, research, medicine, and society.

Each year of the course, the patient case of the course changes, coming from the various focus areas of the Faculty of Medicine/UMC Utrecht (focus points). In the academic year 2023-2024, the focus is on understudied diseases of the female heart: SCAD (Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection). This is a life-threatening heart disease with a significantly increased risk of thrombosis, leading to vascular narrowing and heart attack, primarily affecting women.
https://www.hartstichting.nl/hart-en-vaatziekten/scad https://vrouwenhart.nl/category/scad/
 

Additional information

Education format(s) and contact hours:
Week 1-2: Interactive lectures, Workshops, Meet-The-Expert sessions (MTEs).
Week 3-8: Practical work, Work discussions, Journal clubs, Seminars.
Week 9-10: Report writing, Peer review and feedback, Preparation and delivery of presentations.
Contact hours are full-time (40 hours per week) in weeks 3-8 and approximately 5-10 hours per week in weeks 1-2 and 9-10. Attendance and active participation are mandatory. Absences due to force majeure must always be reported to the coordinator and the study advisor.

Locations:
Biomedicine Research Hub (www.bachelorresearchhub.com)
Biotechnology Research Hub (Faculty of Science Beta)

Educational format
Project-based education, in interdisciplinary groups