Prospectus

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Organ Transplantation

Course
2024-2025

Topics: Organ transplantation, and all its medical, scientific and societal aspects.
Disciplines: Medicine, Biolomedical Sciences, Psychology.

Admission requirements:

This course is an (extracurricular) Honours Class: an elective course within the Honours College programme. Third year students who don’t participate in the Honours College, have the opportunity to apply for a Bachelor Honours Class. Students will be selected based on i.a. their motivation and average grade.

Note: A (bio)medical background is not essential, but a basic biology background is a pre, and you should have a broad interest in societal aspects of transplantation.

Description:

The aim of this Honours Class is to provide an integrated and broad view on the process of organ transplantation. Both cell and organ transplantation have a long history and are currently accepted treatment modalities and very successful life-saving clinical procedures in several diseases. Despite this success, there are still major challenges ahead. Transplantation is in the middle of clinical, scientific, ethical, economic and political discussions. Therefore an integrated and multidisciplinary approach is needed to help the field forward.

The faculty participating in this Honours Class constitutes of experts in these diverse areas, including clinicians and scientists forming the centre of the transplantation procedure, opinion makers in the societal discussions surrounding the transplantation process and people involved in technological developments and regenerative medicine pushing the boundaries of transplantation.

Course objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course, students will have an integrated and broad view on the process of organ transplantation.

Programme and timetable:

The sessions of this class will take place on the follwing Wednesdays from 18.30 - 21.00 starting on 29 January, 2025.

Subjects to be discussed in subsequent sessions (all with dedicated expert speakers):

  • The immunological challenges of transplantation

  • Lack of donor organs; how to increase the pool

  • Combating the trade in human organs

  • Technical improvements to aid transplantation

  • Immunosuppressive cell therapies in kidney transplantation

  • The future of growing organs for transplantation

  • Value based health care in transplantation

  • The optimal benefits of transplantation for patients

  • Isolation and transplantation of Islets of Langerhans

Introduction - Session 1: 29 January, 2025
Introduction program; Get to know each other
Coming together, brief overview of the Honours Class and assignment and promote groups building of the students in this class.

Session 2: 19 February, 2029 (LUMC, lecture hall 7)
Session 3: 5 March, 2025 (LUMC, lecture hall 4)
Session 4: 19 March, 2025 (LUMC, lecture hall 4)
Session 5: 26 March, 2025 (LUMC, lecture hall 4)
Session 6: 2 April, 2025 (LUMC, lecture hall 4)
Session 7: 9 April, 2025 (LUMC, lecture hall 4)
Session 8: 16 April, 2025 (LUMC, lecture hall 4)
Session 9: 14 May, 2025 (LUMC, lecture hall 4)
Session 10 (Spare): 21 May, 2025 (LUMC, lecture hall 4)
Session 11 (Spare): 28 May, 2025 (LUMC, lecture hall 4)
Session 12 (Spare): 4 June, 2025 (LUMC, lecture hall 4)
Session 13 (Spare): 11 June, 2025 (LUMC, lecture hall 4)

Location:
Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) main building lecture hall 7 and lecture hall 4

Reading list:

The reading materials for the individual sessions will be posted on Brightspace and distributed by email.

Course load and teaching method:

This course is worth 5 EC, which means the total course load equals 140 hours.

  • Lectures: 10 sessions of 4 hours; (attendance is mandatory)

  • Literature reading: 5 hours per session;

  • Session organization: 15 hours;

  • Assignments & final essay: 40 hours.

Assessment method:

This course is worth 5 EC, which means the total course load equals 140 hours.

  • 20% organising a session;

  • 10% active participation in the sessions;

  • 70% final essay (minimum of 2000 words).

Brightspace and uSis:

Brightspace will be used in this course. Upon admission students will be enrolled in Brightspace by the teaching administration.

Please note: students are not required to register through uSis for the Bachelor Honours Classes. Your registration will be done centrally.

Application process:

Submitting an application for this course is possible from Monday 28 October up to and including Sunday 17 November 2023 23:59 through the link on the Honours Academy student website.

Note: students don’t have to register for the Bachelor Honours Classes in uSis. The registration is done centrally before the start of the class.

Contact:
Coördinator Honours College Medicine: honourscollegegeneeskunde@lumc.nl