The course is a literature seminar or "journal club". Each Friday a student, or a member of the Stoffel Lab in the Institute of Molecular Health Sciences, will present a comprehensive presentation of a recent paper published in a top ranking international peer reviewed journal that relates to metabolism and disease.
Learning objective
The course introduces the students to recent developments in the fields of metabolism and disease. It also supports the development of analytical skills, including critical reading of scientific literature, being able to present and critically discuss scientific experiments, point out technical limitations, and placing recent discoveries in the broader context of biology, physiology and medicine. The student should be able to grasp what the authors wanted to learn i.e. their hypothesis and their goals, why the authors chose the experimental approach and methods used, the strengths and weaknesses of the experiments, the quality of the data presented, the conclusions drawn, and how the work fits into the wider literature in the field. Furthermore, the student should discuss alternative approaches and future experiments. Each student will present one paper during the course, which provides him/her with practice in public speaking.
Content
Each student will present at least once during the semester. The presentation includes an introduction to the field of the paper, a critical description of the main results, a summary of the main points and a discussion of their significance. Every participant is expected to take part in the discussion and to ask questions. At each meeting, all students are expected to read and prepare the paper beforehand. Each paper presented will be announced one week in advance of the presentation.
Lecture notes
Presentations will be made available after the seminars.
Literature
Students will be guided to choose their papers base on recent literature published less than 1 year prior in a relevant journal.
Performance assessment
Performance assessment information (valid until the course unit is held again)
Repetition only possible after re-enrolling for the course unit.
Additional information on mode of examination
Students must attend at least 80% of the journal clubs, and give at least one presentation. At the end of the semester there will be a 30-minute oral exam on the material presented during the semester. The final grade will be based on the exam (40%), individual presentation (40%), and a contribution based on your active participation in discussion of other presentations (20%).
Learning materials
No public learning materials available.
Only public learning materials are listed.
Groups
No information on groups available.
Restrictions
General
Permission from lecturers required for all students
Performance assessment as a semester course