Course Clinical assessment of insulin resistance and other metabolic parameters

The course B112/13 Clinical assessment of insulin resistance and other metabolic parameters is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2023.

Criteria for participation: University degree in medicine, dentistry, nursing, or master’s degree in other fields and/or postgraduate research fellows (PhD students and research-year medical students).

Aim: Insulin resistance plays a pivotal factor in the pathogenesis behind dysmetabolic conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The aim of this course is to introduce state of the art understanding of various aspects of human insulin resistance, and to introduce methods and techniques used to assess insulin resistance and related metabolic parameters in clinical research.

Learning outcomes: 

·         Understanding for the use and limitations of state of the art methods in metabolism research
·         Insight into tissue specific mechanisms underlying dysmetabolic conditions
·         Understanding for the signaling mechanisms linking insulin receptor to glucose uptake
·         Introduction into animal models and in vitro models for dysmetabolic conditions
·         Introduction into novel methods to assess substrate metabolism in humans

Workload: The full workload of the course is expected to be 24 hours.

Content: 

Day 1

·         Registration and introductory remarks
·         Measurements of insulin sensitivity in humans (basic concepts and definitions)
·         Metabolic tasks and lab-visit
·         Insulin resistance in Diabetes
·         Insulin signaling to glucose transport in muscle
·         Group exercises

Day 2

·         Insulin resistance in animal models
·         TBA
·         Workshop – design an experiment that will address a selected problem presented by a course            participant
·         Measurements of substrate metabolism in vitro
·         PET tracer-based techniques to assess insulin sensitivity

Venue: Forum, Aarhus University Hospital.

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, Health Research Year students and Health Research Honours Programme students from Aarhus University
• PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration
• PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses

Course dates:

• 02 November 2023 09:00 - 15:30
• 03 November 2023 09:00 - 16:00