MBS1002: Biomedical Approaches
, 1
Course introduction lecture
Core of course: apply techniques to aging.
Human life expectancy at birth increases up until now per decade 2.5 years (for the last 150
years, not stopped). CVD, parkinson → 80% death in the western world.
Underlying cause of all these medical conditions could be all the same, reason why look at
aging.
Human life expectancy dropped after the pandemic, no longer rises.
Cause: drug overdose (us), increase metabolic syndrome, pandemic —> western world
Health as we age
Health as we age flattens. Curve here represents:
y-axis: capacity for independent life (newborns incapable, dependent on parents)
With age people, gain independence and peak at approximately 22years old (our age). And
then the process of aging starts.
This curve in western world (blue) flattens: we spend more of our lives, especially later ages,
in a relative unhealthy. (Cause: diabetes, dementia,..). Even worse is that we spend many
years being dependent at the end of life through nursing homes and care providers.
We want increase in life expectancy and healthspan (area above dependence line)= amount
of time spent above this line of dependence.
Focus lies on healthspan, not lifespan.
, 2
Course goals
Address hallmarks of aging (will be covered next lectures):
● cellular senescence
● epigenetic alterations
● stem cell exhaustion
● deregulated nutrient sensing
● genomic instability and telomere attrition
● altered cellular communication
● mitochondrial dysfunction
● loss of proteostasis
From core biomedical perspectives:
● biomedical imaging
● nutrition, physical activity and metabolism
● neurological
● regenerative medicine
● inflammation and pathophysiology
● genetics and genomics
LG of this course:
- ILO1 Describe the goal and application of the technique
- ILO2 Discuss the biomolecular principle how the technique works
, 3
- ILO3 Interpret read-outs including measurements, scans, bands, plots etc.
- Explain and interpret a figure with results of the experiments, including axis and
controls.
- ILO4 Justify the recommendation for alternative techniques by describing their pros
and cons, especially in relation to feasibility in terms of materials available, costs,
equipment and time investment.
- The exam will cover the ILO1-3 for approaches we teach with lectures, PBL sessions
- ILO4 is assessed with Emerging Techniques presentation
Week division
1.Introduction to the course, introduction to ageing, introduction to poster
2. Cell culture, emerging techniques
3. Animal models, emerging techniques
4. Mass spectrometry, emerging techniques
5. Microscopy, poster feedback
6. Genomics and transcriptomics, poster feedback
7. Flow cytometry, emerging techniques
8. Poster, exam
Lecture 1: Can we intervene in aging?