Medical Cell Biology course
The Medical Cell Biology: stem cells and gene therapy course is offered in Dutch and English to Ma1 students of the Master on Biomedical Sciences: Molecular Mechanisms of Diseases (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences).
Coordinator: Prof. Peter Ponsaerts
Lecturers 2023-2024:
Goal and content:
This course serves two purposes. Firstly, this course will provide contemporary and new directions of medical cell biology, in particular in the field of cell therapy, gene therapy and regenerative medicine. Much attention will go to the rapidly evolving field of stem cell biology and therapy. Secondly, a number of recent biomedical applications in the diagnostic/research lab will be discussed. The different topics of the course are:
1. Blood cells: interactions and differentiation (hematopoiesis).
2. Hematopoietic stem cells.
3. Adult and embryonic stem cells.
4. Self-renewal of stem cells: biological and molecular aspects.
5. Introduction to hematological malignancies: classification, physiopathology and treatment.
6. Gene therapy: principles and clinical applications
7. Cell therapy / Blood transfusion.
8. Endothelial progenitor cells / stem cell therapy for the heart.
9. Chimerism and tolerance in solid organ transplantations.
10. Implementation of molecular amplification and flow cytometric methods in the clinical diagnostic/pharmaceutical laboratory.
In this course, the following topics will be discussed as lectures (AJ 2023-2024):
| Introduction to medical cells and ATMP (Prof. Eva Lion) |
| Clinical trial regulations (Prof. Eva Lion) |
| Dendritic cell therapy (Prof. Evelien Smits) |
| Other vaccination strategies (Prof. Evelien Smits) |
| Materials for tissue engineering (Dr. Bert Van den Bogerd) |
| Applications of tissue engineering (Dr. Bert Van den Bogerd) |
| Experimental treatment of eye disease (Prof. Sorcha Ni Dhubhghaill) |
| Skin stem cells and regeneration (Prof. An Bervoets) |
| In vitro models for ischemic stroke research (Dr. Elise Van Breedam) |
| Tissue Engineering in Ophthalmology (Dr. Bert Van den Bogerd) |
| Immunomodulatory cell therapy (Prof. Nathalie Cools) |
| Stem cells and stem cell therapy (Prof. Peter Ponsaerts) |
| Hematopoietic stem cells and transplantation (Prof. Zwi Berneman) |
| iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (Prof. Maaike Alaerts) |
| iPSC-derived brain organoids (Julia Di Stefano) |
| CRISPR (Prof. Maaike Alaerts) |
| CRISPR for inner ear gene therapy (Dr. Dorien Verdoodt) |
| Ex vivo T cell engineering (Dr. Diana Campillo Davó) |
Prerequisite knowledge: relevant BA with knowledge of cellular and molecular biology.
Teaching method: general lectures by instructors; student presentations of research paper
Place/time/frequency: weekly classes over a twelve-week period.
Assessment: oral examination after written preparation, oral presentation.
Literature: syllabus and handouts of the presentations.