Admission requirements
Students of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacy and other Life Sciences.
Description
Cardiovascular diseases are the major cause of morbidity and mortality in the Western society. Atherosclerosis, a progressive inflammatory disease that is hallmarked by an accumulation of lipids and fibrous tissue in the large arteries, is the main pathology underlying cardiovascular disease and represents one of the primary research areas of the LACDR division of BioTherapeutics. This course will give more insights into the mechanisms and ontogenesis of atherosclerosis. Special emphasis will be devoted to the contribution of inflammatory processes and lipid fluxes in the development of atherosclerotic lesions and how important risk factors, such as aging and stress, affect these processes. Also, the clinical end-points of atherosclerosis and therapeutic strategies to treat atherosclerosis will be discussed.
This course aims to:
raise students’ interest and enthusiasm for the field of cardiovascular research.
provide an overview of the most important processes, including immunological and metabolic factors, underlying atherosclerosis.
discuss the use of state-of-the-art single cell technology and biologicals to advance our understanding of the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis, with diagnostic and therapeutic potential.
introduce the latest developments and insights in the field of cardiovascular research.
allow students to interpret and design experiments to study atherosclerosis.
Note that these are expert lectures series and that hence the content might change every year.
Course objectives
At the end of this course the student is able to:
describe and explain the inflammatory processes underlying atherosclerosis pathology.
describe and explain the metabolic dysregulations in lipid fluxes underlying atherosclerosis pathology.
describe and explain the clinical end-points of atherosclerosis.
describe various therapeutic strategies used to treat atherosclerosis and are able to explain the mechanism of action of these therapies.
design experimental setups to study a specific aspect of atherosclerosis pathology or treatment.
read scientific literature, and can critically reflect on the rational and experimental approach of the study as well as on the results presented and conclusions drawn by the authors.
present a scientific research paper to peers during a Journal Club.
Timetable
This course is scheduled for semester 1, period 1.
You will find the timetables for all courses and degree programmes of Leiden University in the tool MyTimetable (login). Any teaching activities that you have sucessfully registered for in MyStudymap will automatically be displayed in MyTimetable. Any timetables that you add manually, will be saved and automatically displayed the next time you sign in.
MyTimetable allows you to integrate your timetable with your calendar apps such as Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and other calendar apps on your smartphone. Any timetable changes will be automatically synced with your calendar. If you wish, you can also receive an email notification of the change. You can turn notifications on in ‘Settings’ (after login).
For more information, watch the video or go to the 'help-page' in MyTimetable. Please note: Joint Degree students Leiden/Delft have to merge their two different timetables into one. This video explains how to do this.
A detailed schedule of the course will be published on the Brightspace course module.
Mode of instruction
Lectures, tutorials and self-tuition.
Assessment method
The course will be concluded with a written exam (open questions). Participation to the Journal Club is mandatory to pass the course.
For each individual exam, the grade is expressed either with pass or fail, or by using a decimal integer between 1.0 and 10.0 that should be ≥ 5.5. The final grade is expressed using an integer between 1 and 10 and can be rounded off/up to a half integer, with the exception of the grade 5.5. Final grades between 5.50 and 5.99 will be rounded up to 6.0. The final grade should be 6.0 to successfully complete this course.
The time and manner of the inspection and of the feedback session on the examination are specified in the Brightspace module of the course.
Reading list
Will be announced during the course.
Registration
Every student has to register for courses with the enrolment tool MyStudymap. There are two registration periods per year: registration for the fall semester opens in July and registration for the spring semester opens in December. Please see this page for more information.
Please note that it is compulsory to register for every exam and retake. Not being registered for a course means that you are not allowed to participate in the final exam of the course. If you want to retake the exam of the course without following the lectures, you have to contact the coordinator of the course to see if this is possible (you would have passed the other assignments of the course in the earlier year).
Registration for your (resit) exam participation is possible until ten days before the exam.
Extensive FAQ's on MyStudymap can be found here.
Contact
Coordinator: Dr. Amanda Foks (e-mail: a.c.foks@lacdr.leidenuniv.nl, tel. 071-527 6213).
Remarks
A minimum of 5 students and a maximum of 50 master students applies to this course. Placement is based on the registration date in MyStudymap.
This information is without prejudice. Alterations can be made for next year.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.