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No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of the information provided on this site. Legally binding information has to be taken from the recent examination rules and Module Handbook accessible on the faculty's website.
The graduate course of Molecular Medicine is a one year program taught and examined in English. It perfectly follows the Bachelor's degree and enables the students to further focus on their field of interest.

Curriculum

Term 1 Term 2
2 x 3 = 6 ECTS points 2 x 12 = 24 ECTS points 3 ECTS points 27 ECTS points
Advanced Lectures in Molecular Medicine
Two Lectures have to be chosen – depending on the focus areas.
Laboratory Rotations
Two Laboratory rotations have to be chosen – depending on the focus areas. Both lab rotations can be done in the same focus area.
Seminar Meet the Expert Master Thesis
Choose from:
Advanced Immunology, Advanced Neurosciences, Advanced Oncology, Advanced Infection Biology

The students take lectures in two of the four given focus areas (3 ECTS respectively):

Advanced Immunology

The specialist field of immunology imparts knowledge of the complex processes involved in the regulation of cellular and immunological processes in both human and animals. The immunological processes are thus examined in association with disease-induced malfunctions, for example in the case of immune defects or tumor immunology.
The lectures in the series “Advanced Immunology” cover the detailed mechanisms of the immune system. This includes an examination of the recent discoveries made in cellular and molecular immunology. The major topics include the evolution of immune systems, therapeutic antibodies, computational immunobiology, antigen processing, cellular communication, negative and positive regulatory mechanisms in immunity, the interaction between immune systems, and pathogens and pathomechanisms.

Advanced Neurosciences

Aging is the most important risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases, and thus an understanding of the age-related neural changes is of fundamental importance. Cerebral proteopathy is a unifying term for neurodegenerative diseases in which proteins misfold and polymerize into aggregates that are resistant to clearance. Whether these protein aggregations are causative for the disease or are epiphenomena will be discussed for each disorder. This course emphasis on the molecular and cellular pathomechanisms of the most common dementias and other neurodegenerative disorders, especially Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Other dementias covered in this lecture course are the heterogenous group of Frontotemporal Dementias and the Prion diseases including Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease. Additional movement disorders discussed in this lecture series include Huntington’s disease and various ataxias. Finally, motor neuron disease such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis will be presented and the recent link to the pathogenesis of Frontotemporal Dementia highlighted.

Advanced Oncology

The lecture on Advanced Oncology is intended to provide further knowledge on the molecular basis of tumor development and the molecular approaches to pathology and diagnostics as well as into molecular strategies in cancer therapy. Based on the topics to be addressed the students will acquire deep insights into state-of-the-art of molecular and translational oncology with respect to molecular mechanisms of cancer development, molecular pathology and diagnostics and molecular strategies in cancer therapies. In addition to the theoretical backgrounds provided during the lecture current research projects and key experiments are supposed to be presented. This gives the students a better insight into the research area of the chosen field of specialization.

Advanced Infection Biology

The lecture on Advanced Infection Biology is intended to provide further knowledge on the molecular basis of processes in viruses (viral control of translation, trafficking of viral components, reverse transcription and integration - evolution and emergence of viruses), bacteria (bacteria-phagocyte interaction, in vivo infection models, DNA sequencing techniques, protein expression systems - Flow cytometry) and parasites (Malaria vaccines, drug resistance of Plasmodium falciparum, reverse genetics in Plasmodium falciparum - Helminths and allergies). In addition to the theoretical backgrounds provided during the lecture current research projects and key experiments are supposed to be presented. This gives the students a better insight into the research area of the chosen field of specialization.

In context of the four major fields Immunology, Neurosciences, Oncology and Infection Biology, the students individually choose to have Laboratory Rotations at two different research groups (12 ECTS respectively). Those two rotations can be performed in the same or different focus areas.

A Laboratory rotation consists of a 6-week-long practical research period, where the students concentrate on a specific project in accordance to the research group's ongoing research. They are supervised by a doctoral student or a postdoctoral researcher. In a 2-week-long period of self-study, they prepare a written report and an oral presentation of the project. At the interdisciplinary seminar, one of the completed projects is presented to the fellow students in a 10-minute talk.

Seminar Meet the Expert (3 ECTS)

As part of this module, the students take part in different sessions, such as journal clubs, colloquia or other offers like scientific congresses. Again, they may personalize their study according to their individual interests.

The interdisciplinary seminar is also part of this module.

For their Master Thesis, the students develop an own research project idea and gain insights into the topic through available literature. They design and perform the appropriate experiments and obtain the right data in order to proof their theory. The students take care of sufficient controls and documentation and present their findings in written form. An oral presentation on top is possible.

The practical work should be completed in a 5-month time frame and there are one or two months for literature research and writing process. The whole Master Thesis should not exceed six months of time.

Details on the graduate course

Medical faculty of the University Tuebingen