epigenetics and cancer
this MSc module teaches epigenetics and cancer from bedside to clinical research
Course overview
Epigenetics and cancer is an intensive full-time module (lecture series, seminar, and practical exercise) over 4 weeks with the educational objective of providing a better understanding of the carcinogenesis and translational (cancer) research. 2023 I included a special focus on determinants of health and the importance of diversity in medicine.
Course contents
Lecture series
- Impact of aging, external factors, and epigenetics on carcinogenesis
- Types of epigenetic modifications
- Laboratory and computational methods to study epigenetic modifications
- Clinical applications of epigenetics for cancer diagnosis and prevention
- Biobanking and clinical study design
- Social determinants of health and importance of diversity in medicine
Practical exercise: from the bedside to translational research
Students follow a sample from the clinic to the biobank to the analysis and perform hands-on translational research.
- Part I: Clinic visit
- Part II: Ethics and biobanking: identification of a new research question, preparation of a study plan and submission of an ethics proposal; ‘ethics committee session’
- Part III: Laboratory processing and analysis of samples and data
- Part IV: Science communication: preparing a lay abstract and science outreach for the research question
Seminar series
Discussion of recent studies involving epigenetics or other biomarkers for translational purposes.