Welcome to Looking at diseases with a systemic approach, finding new treatment opportunities (2017)

Topic, background and motivation for the course:
Often in medicine treatment and intervention is seen as a linear approach. Diseases are put into boxes like inflammatory diseases, metabolic diseases psychiatric or CNS diseases. However, there is a strong interplay between different systems in the body. Inflammatory molecules have an effect on the CNS, and metabolism, on the other hand metabolism has an influence on the CNS and immune system and the CNS controls both inflammatory as well as metabolic systems in the body. This interplay of the different stems can explain side effects of treatments and makes it a challenge to ind the right approach for treating patients. However, on the other hand it also opens up opportunities to treat patients differently, or opens up ways for individualized treatment. What is needed is to be open for seeing these connections and interplays. In this course we will go in different ways to look at diseases and you will be challenged to look at diseases different ways.

Prerequisites: Understanding of basic biochemistry and human physiology.

Learning objectives:
Be open for explaining diseases in different ways. Finding connections between biochemical immunological and neurological systems.Become a researcher with an open mind.

Teaching methods:
Group teaching where the students will be given first some basic course on how systems interplay and improve or suppress each other, how systems can get out of whack.

After this introduction, tasks will be given with questions to which the students as a group or when larger classes as groups have to find the answers, which will be presented at the next class where these presentations will be challaned by the other students and or the lecturers.

Criteria for assessment:
Be an active student, and passing the different sessions be able to answer the questions and defend your findings.

Key literature:
Will be given in due time.

Organizer: John Dirk Nieland jdn@hst.aau.dk

Lecturers: John Dirk Nieland jdn@hst.aau.dk and Søren Nielsen sn@hst.aau.dk

ECTS: 3

Time:
2, 9, 16 and 31 October 2017

Place:
Aalborg University. Address to be announced.

City: 9220  Aalborg 

Number of seats:

Deadline:
10 September

Important information concerning PhD courses:
We have over some time experienced problems with no-show for both project and general courses. It has now reached a point where we are forced to take action. Therefore, the Doctoral School has decided to introduce a no-show fee of DKK 5,000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately three months before start. This can hopefully also provide new students a chance to register for courses during the year. We look forward to your registrations.