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Biological and Biomedical Sciences | / | Immunology | / | Neuroscience | / | Virology | // | Leder Medical Sciences | // | HILS Programs |
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Biological and Biomedical Sciences | / | Immunology | / | Neuroscience | / | Virology | // | Leder Medical Sciences | // | HILS Programs |
HBTM New Courses & Description
Four new courses form the curricular foundation for the Program in Human Biology and Translational Medicine: Genomics and Phenomics; Cellular Metabolism and Human Disease; Critical Readings in Human Biology and Translational Medicine; and a January-term course, “Discovery in Human Biology and Translational Medicine.” Didactic course work begins in the second semester of the G1 year, and includes a rigorous new course entitled Genes to Phenomes, which will provide groundwork in the analysis of human disease based upon an appreciation of the role that variation in DNA and protein sequence plays in individual health and disease, with a focus on cancer. Evolving statistical methods to analyze large DNA sequence databases and the rapid translation of these findings to the management of patients in the clinic will serve as a transformative lesson: personalized medicine will become the practiced paradigm. This course in human genetics also includes instruction in systems biology and bioinformatics. Students in this course discover the implications of DNA sequence variants and epigenetic effects on a molecular level, and correlations between genotype and phenotype are explored in the context of the whole human organism. Instruction in bioinformatics provides the basis for interpreting the pathways of human disease and using this information to explore potential molecular solutions for interruption of the programmed disease destiny in the individual. A new course entitled Cellular Metabolism in Human Disease explores the relationships between cellular and organismal metabolism, using a combination of classroom and clinical encounters to explore the molecular basis for human metabolic derangements ranging from starvation to diabetes. The course includes lectures, student-led conferences with expert faculty, and hospital-based direct patient encounters. Lectures focus on key metabolic pathways, including: analyses of biochemical mechanisms for the uptake and metabolism of glucose; the transport and transformation of lipids and lipoproteins; amino acid synthesis and protein assembly; and the roles of vitamins as essential enzyme cofactors. Examples are drawn from human genetic diseases that involve these pathways. Conference sessions explore metabolic pathways in the context of specific organ systems, and include critical reading of selected research papers in human metabolism and disease states, including diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, alcoholism, obesity, starvation, and metabolic syndromes. The connections among enzyme cofactors, therapeutics, and human disease are also explored. Conference sessions are integrated with clinical encounters, including direct patient interactions in the hospital setting. These encounters are not only observational, but also involve the application of molecular principles to diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in the management of these disorders. This new Cellular Metabolism and Human Disease course is being offered for the first time in spring, 2007, as BCMP234. This course is also required for students in the Leder Medical Sciences Program. A third new course is Pharmacology, Pathophysiology and Therapeutics. This semester-length course, taken in the fall semester of the second graduate school year, provides a rigorous treatment of the fundamentals of pharmacology, and fully integrates basic pathophysiological principles into the teaching of drug design and therapeutics. These three core semester-length required HBTM courses are notable for their incorporation of critical reading sessions into the course structure. Some papers are selected that utilize molecular and cellular approaches to explore a human disease mechanism. Other papers explore the same disease pathway, but as studied in clinical trials, population-based studies, or human experimentation. Thus, all of the core HBTM courses will include critical reading to emphasize the theme of human biology and disease; the selected readings serve as examples of how molecular and cellular approaches to the study of disease can lead to the implementation of human studies, and to advances in diagnosis, prevention and treatment of disease. HBTM students are also required to take the BBS critical reading course, Microbiology 230, in the fall semester. A new one-month course for first-year HBTM students during the January block is entitled Discovery in Human Biology and Translational Medicine. This course uses selected papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine as a platform for the analysis of human biology and disease-oriented research methods, as well as recent advances in human biology that provide new insights into the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of human disease. This course is required of all first-year PHBTM students, and is offered to all students in the Leder Medical Sciences Program. Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, will serve as course director. Dr. Drazen chooses for discussion recent NEJM papers exemplary of translational advances in our understanding of human disease. These same papers serve as a basis for teaching PHBTM and LMS students the fundamentals of experimental design and biostatistics in basic and clinical research. This course provides an essential component of the educational process for obtaining the statistical power of experimental observations in both basic and clinical investigations, for assessing the outcomes of novel therapies, and for dissecting the complexities of genetic and environmental effects. During the summer between year 1 and year 2, students participate in a new Disease-Centered Tutorial and Clinic, which meets one afternoon each week. Each weekly session is organized around a clinic at one of the HMS affiliated hospitals. There is a one-hour tutorial (led by a member of the PHBTM faculty), after which the students “shadow” a physician-scientist as s/he evaluates the patients in the clinic. The PHBTM faculty is also developing several new Quarter Courses and Nano Courses that are focused on specific human diseases, including courses (for example) on Diabetes, Amyloidosis, and Atherosclerosis, among others. The Quarter Course and Nano Course formats are ideal for the presentation of core concepts in specific human disease states, and for the exploration of connections between basic biological concepts and the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. Additionally, a broad range of elective courses are available that span topics from biomaterials and tissue engineering to cancer biology to advanced biostatistics. These courses facilitate the assimilation of concepts learned in human genetics, pathology, population sciences, and metabolism in a new approach to mechanism-based diagnostics and therapeutics. Collectively, these courses form the cornerstones of the discipline of Human Biology and Translational Medicine, and represent a novel integrative learning experience transcending genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and genetics in the understanding of human health and disease. In addition to these courses, students in the Program in Human Biology and Translational Medicine (PHBTM) are involved in a broad range of ongoing paracurricular programs that will be developed with the Leder Medical Sciences (LMS) Program, and will be available to interested students in BBS and throughout HILS. These activities include a monthly dinner seminar, “Recent Advances in Human Biology and Translational Medicine,” featuring a lecture and discussion led by a member of the PHBTM, BBS, or LMS faculty or by visiting scientists. The students in these programs are encouraged to attend the periodic Clinical Champions Lecture Series organized by the PASTEUR program at HMS. Students attend selected Medical Grand Rounds presented by investigators who pursue work using approaches related to Human Biology and Translational Medicine. Students and faculty from the PHBTM and LMS programs participate in an annual retreat (open to all interested BBS students and faculty) that will highlight student research, and will include a lecture by a leading faculty investigator. This retreat features poster presentations by the students, and may include a competitive award for the best posters. Most importantly, the annual retreat presents opportunities for both scientific and social interactions between the students and faculty, and for broader discussion of educational and programmatic issues. For information on HBTM faculty and their wide range of fields of study in the human diseases, click here. |
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