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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2017/2018

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Deanery of Biomedical Sciences : Biomedical Sciences

Undergraduate Course: Regenerative Medicine (BIME10017)

Course Outline
SchoolDeanery of Biomedical Sciences CollegeCollege of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryRegenerative Medicine seeks to harness both the intrinsic developmental programs by which the tissues and organs of the body are laid down, as well as the capacity of the body to repair and regenerate it's own tissues, to provide solutions to the problems of degenerative diseases. These solutions may concern direct tissue replacement, indirect mechanisms to ameliorate disease or enhance intrinsic tissue repair, or the development of pharmaceutical therapies.

The purpose of the course is to provide a basic grounding in the principles and practice of regenerative medicine, largely for an audience who will be the clinical and laboratory scientists involved in production and delivery of these therapeutics.
Course description The course will introduce the concepts of regenerative medicine, the nature of stem cells of different types, their current use in medicine and the prospects for their future use in medicine, veterinary medicine and the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. It will cover the production of lines of multipotent and pluripotent stem cells, the conditions necessary to induce their differentiation into specific lineages and cell types, and the applications of these clinically and commercially.

In terms of the clinical applications, aspects of inherited or acquired diseases will be covered, that are, or in the future could be, treated by stem cell therapies. For commercial applications, the use of stem cell derived artificial organs in screening other therapeutics will be addressed.

The course will describe practical aspects of cell culture and molecular assays relevant to the field of stem cell biology, and will cover aspects of quality control and quality assurance necessary for the adequate delivery of stem cell based therapies within current legislative frameworks.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  25
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 22, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 16, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1, Formative Assessment Hours 3, Summative Assessment Hours 3, Revision Session Hours 4, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 147 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 70 %, Coursework 30 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Students will be assessed by a combination of in-course assessment, which will account for 30% of the final mark, and a final exam, which will account for 70% of the final mark. The in-course assessment will consist of:
1. A presentation on a topic in Regenerative Medicine to last no more than 10 minutes, followed by up to 5 minutes of questioning on the presentation.
2. A short essay or précis of a topic in Regenerative Medicine. The maximum length of this essay should be 1500 words, with a buffer zone of 200 words. References and Figure legends will NOT be counted within the word limit.

Exam: 2 hours answering 2 essay questions, one from each of two sections
Feedback Feedback will be available throughout the course in many forms:
Feedback from course organiser and peers on your presentations
Mid-course feedback session, as well as several sessions later in the course to go over exam questions and techniques as well as specific student questions about topics has been timetabled for students
Feedback from the exam
Exam Information
Exam Diet Paper Name Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S1 (December)Regenerative Medicine2:00
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. The basic concepts of regenerative medicine and the contribution stem cells make to normal homeostasis. The nature of stem cells and the concept of potency.
  2. The definition and derivation of embryonic stem cells, and the regulatory and ethical issues that concern the derivation of such cells. The derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells, the potential uses and problems associated with their use.
  3. The mechanisms of liver homeostasis and the derivation of hepatocytes from stem cells. The development of neurons from progenitors and the application of stem cells to degenerative neural diseases. The development of the haematopoietic system from multipotent progenitors and the clinical use of stem cells in haematopoietic stem cell transplants.
  4. The ethical and regulatory framework surrounding the derivation and use of stem cells for clinical and pharmaceutical purposes.
  5. Students will also have achieved: attainment of advanced skills in reading and understanding the primary literature; development of scientific problem solving skills; development of oral presentation skills
Reading List
NIH report Regenerative Medicine, available online at:
http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/scireport/Pages/2006report.aspx
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsRegMed
Contacts
Course organiserDr Paul Travers
Tel: (0131) 242 9458
Email:
Course secretaryMr Philip Horey
Tel: (0131 6)50 3160
Email:
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