spring 2019 BIO-8604 Marine bioprospecting and bioactive compounds for health - 5 ECTS

Application deadline

PhD students registered to PhD program at UiT: Apply for admission by registering for class in StudentWeb before 1 February 2019.

PhD students from other institutions: Apply for admission through SøknadsWeb before 1 February 2019. Remember to state which course you apply for.

You need to register for the workshop and the conference. http://bioprosp.com/Early bird registration for the Conference is December 20.

Contact Ingjerd Gauslaa Nilsen (Ingjerd.nilsen@uit.no) at the BFE-faculty if you have troubles or questions regarding registration to the course.


Type of course

The Ph.D. course in Marine bioprospecting and bioactive compounds for health is multidisciplinary. Can be taken as an individual course. This course is linked to the conference Bioprosp_2019, and you need to register as an attendant of the conference and the workshop in marine biotech entrepreneurship Bioprosp_2019.

Admission requirements

Maximum number of participants: 20.

The applicants must document that they are registered this semester at their home university or at a minimum, document that they have finished the master degree. External students must remember to upload certified documentation of education, and if relevant, documentation of their status as a PhD student/student to SøknadsWeb. Confirmation of student status should be from your home student administration. Confirmation from your supervisor or copy of award letter is not considered as valid documentation.

Early bird registration for the Conference is December 20! Contact Klara Stensvåg (klara.stensvag@uit.no) for information about the course and deadlines.


Course content

The Phd course in Marine bioprospecting and bioactive compounds for health is multidisciplinary. It will be a mixture of preconference lectures (some online), a preconference workshop, practical sessions, and seminars with discussions. The Conference Bioprosp_2019 and the pre-conference in marine biotech entrepreneurship is part of the course. The topics covered in the course are:
  • Marine bioresources available for drug discovery and bioprospecting
  • The Marine Biodiscovery Pipeline
  • Overview of different methods used in drug discovery, spending from bioassay guided purifications, genetic approaches and virtual approaches
  • Different techniques and approaches; how to purify components, solve structures and measure activity for instance in high throughput screening, peptidomics
  • Challenges and casestudies of lead development
  • Legal aspects
  • Pre-conference workshop in marine biotech entrepreneurship
  • Topics given at the conference
  • Practical sessions with demonstrations

Objectives of the course

Knowledge The students should be able to

  • Describe different bioprospecting methods that is focused on in the course and particularly well the bioassay guided purification pipeline.
  • Master the basic knowledge of the possibilities of marine bioprospecting and have overview of challenges and ways to overcome them.

Skills The students should be able to

  • Understand experimental methods used in bioprospecting
  • Understand information of novel natural products, structures, bioactivity and ways to evaluate the potential use
  • Apply multidisciplinary aspects to understand the complexity of developing novel products from natural sources

General competence The students should be able to

  • demonstrate analytical thinking by critically evaluate a scientific article and proposing possible research questions, and designing suitable research strategies for answering the questions.

Language of instruction and examination

English.

Teaching methods

  • The Bioprosp_2019 conference will be held 25. - 27. February 2019.
  • The course will be held in Week 8-9.
  • Some of the lectures will be held online in February.
  • Lecturers will be held by Professor Klara Stensvåg, Professor Marcel Jaspars, University of Aberdeen, UK, Associate professor Tor Haug, UiT and more (to be confermed).

There will be a mixture of lectures and hands on practical activities at different bioprospecting facilities, workshop at the Bioprosp_2019 conference and the conference it self.


Assessment

A presentation on a set subject linked to bioprospecting relevant for the course. The title must be approved and prepared before the course. Evaluation; pass or fail

Re-sit: A re-sit exam will be arranged next semester.


Recommended reading/syllabus

Everything that is presented and literature will be uploaded on Canvas. More information will be given by the contact person.

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  • About the course
  • Campus: Tromsø |
  • ECTS: 5
  • Course code: BIO-8604