Viral Diseases: Molecular mechanisms of infection

Course goals

Content

The topic will be taught in working groups and the special element of this setup is the integration of lectures by specialists, individual literature study, group discussions, the design of a grant proposal, writing and reviewing of its summary, and ending with a group presentation to defend the proposal. Each group consists of max. 4 students and has one supervisor. This course is taught in English and is meant as a preparation towards a Research Master. It is also good preparation for the course SK-B3PFA.

Trying to understand molecular mechanisms of viral infection and disease is a fascinating endeavor and of significant societal relevance. In this course you will learn a lot, but will be taught little about this subject. Some general lectures on viruses and the methods available to study them will provide a basis to embark on the Viral Diseases project, the core of this course. Each project group will study one of the following three viruses: SARS-CoV-2 (the Covid-19-causing virus), Ebola virus, or influenza virus (flu virus). The three selected viruses constitute a serious health threat to mankind.

Viral infections are based on molecular interactions and physical-chemical processes in and on the surface of living cells. The project will reveal insights from biochemistry, molecular cell biology, structural chemistry and molecular immunology. Because the project deals with analyzing and solving realistic practical problems, methods of measurement and analysis will be a major topic of study.

Every viral disease starts with an infection and results in the production of new virus particles by infected cells. The molecular aspects of these processes will be mapped. You then will formulate a research hypothesis that may further the research in this area. Realistic experiments will be devised
to test the hypothesis. Finally, the problem analysis, the hypothesis to be tested and the proposed experiments will be converted into a grant-proposal summary and presented to the other project groups at the concluding symposium.

In the concluding presentation the "project group" will present their research question that is to be investigated, justifying: 
-    Why is this a good question? Why exactly this research question or hypothesis? 
-    What do you expect to learn from this?
-    How will this research further the field?
-    Why would I (or a granting agency) award the grant to you? 

You will see that this becomes an exciting experience, which is instructive at the same time, because you are forced to ask yourself what it is exactly that you want to find out and that you (upon closer inspection) do not know.
 
PLEASE NOTE: YOU HAVE TO BE AVAILABLE FOR THE ENTIRE TIMESLOT BC. STUDENTS WHO ENLIST FOR A SECOND COURSE IN THE SAME TIMESLOT BC WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO FOLLOW THIS COURSE.