Vår 2019

MBI-8008 Molecular and Clinical Aspects of Cancer - Block II - 10 stp

The course is administrated by

Institutt for medisinsk biologi

Type of course

This course is available as a singular course.

Course overlap

BIO-8303 Molecular and Clinical Aspects of Cancer - block II 10 stp

Course contents

The course is divided into three modules:

Module I:

Module I cover the topics DNA repair, Transcriptional regulation, Chromatin and Epigenetics and the impact of these processes for maintenance and proper proliferation and differentiation of the cell. How dysregulation of any these processes may contribute to cancer development is discussed.

Module II:

The topics of Module II are infectious agents and their involvement in different cancer types, inflammation and cancer, and cancer stem cells. The infectious agents discussed are viruses, and how some of their encoded proteins have the ability to disturb the normal regulation of a eukaryotic cell. The inflammation section discusses the role of inflammatory factors for survival and proliferation of cancer cells. The cancer stem cell hypothesis in vascular and solid cancers will be discussed.

Module III:

Module III covers targeted cancer therapy, cancer omics and cancer epidemiology. Factors that may have a preventive effect on cancer development, immunotherapy and molecular medicines and how such

medicines specifically hit the oncoproteins and thereby inhibit growth of cancer cells are discussed. The epidemiology part highlights the impact of genetic and environmental factors in cancer development.

Application deadline

PhD course. Registration deadline for PhD students and students at the Medical Student Research Program at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway: February 1st.

Application deadline for other applicants is December 1st. Application code in SøknadsWeb is 9303.

Admission requirements

PhD students or holders of a Norwegian master´s degree of five years or 3+ 2 years (or equivalent) or master students at a Medical Student Research Program may be admitted. Valid documentation is a statement from your institution that you are a registered PhD student or master student at a Medical Research Program, or a Master´s Diploma with Diploma Supplement / English translation of the diploma. PhD students are exempt from semester fee. To take PhD courses you need at a minimum a master's degree or equivalent, or admission to a Medical Student Research Program. For more information regarding PhD courses at the Faculty of Health Sciences go to: http://uit.no/helsefak/forskning/phd/emner

Objective of the course

After completing the course the students will have the

Knowledge to:

Explain the main mechanisms of DNA repair, Transcriptional regulation, Chromatin and Epigenetics and the impact of these processes for maintenance and proper proliferation and differentiation of the cell.
Discuss how proteins encoded by infectious agents have the ability to disturb the normal regulation of a eukaryotic cell and contribute to cancer development.
Explain the roles of inflammatory factors in cancer development, and how the immune system can be modulated to recognise and destroy cancer cells.
Discuss the impact of genetic and environmental factors in cancer development.
Describe the roles of cancer stem cells as important targets of cancer treatment.
Discuss the cancer stem cell hypothesis.
Describe central methods in cancer biology research.

Skills to:

Justify factors that may have a preventive effect on cancer development, the basics of immunotherapy and molecular medicines and how such medicines specifically hit the oncoproteins and thereby inhibit growth of cancer cells.
Justify how dysregulation of epigenetics, DNA repair and inflammation processes may contribute to cancer development.
Present and critically review high impact research papers within the field of basic and translational cancer research.

Competence to:

Interpret results from own research and link it scientifically into the context of international basic and translational cancer research.
Evaluate and Implement relevant methods of advanced cancer research in own project.

Language of instruction

English.

Teaching methods

Learning methods include lectures, seminars, presentations and self-study. The course consists of approximately 254 hours, including 30 hours of lectures, 24 hours of seminars, 120 hours reading syllabus, 20 hours for the course work requirement, and 60 hours of self-tuition (preparation for lectures and exams). The course is given each spring.

Assessment

Course work requirements: Presentation of their PhD project, prepared prior to course start and presented in plenary the first day of the course. Lectures and seminars are obligatory.

The exam consists of three oral presentations of articles (1 for each module); presented in plenary. Questions from syllabus literature will follow the presentation. The presentation including the questions will be evaluated with pass / fail. All three presentations including the following examination must be passed in order to pass the course. All presentations are weighted equally and only one grade will be given for the three presentations.