Course Bone Biology

The course B16/01 Bone Biology  is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, fall 2022.

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).

Recommended knowledge for participation: This is an introductory course, so no previous experience in bone biology is necessary.

Aim: To give the participants an overview of the bone biology under normal, physiological, and pathophysiological conditions, bone therapies, and basic and advanced methodologies in bone research.  

Learning outcomes: The students will obtain knowledge about bone cells and bone biology under physiological and pathophysiological conditions such as osteoporosis, rheumatology, rare bone diseases, cancer-induced bone diseases, and parathyroid and kidney diseases, as well as their current therapies. Moreover, the student will obtain basic knowledge about clinical and pre-clinical bone study design, in vitro cell cultures, serum bone markers, bone epidemiology, pre-clinical and clinical computed tomography (CT) and DEXA, and bone pathology and histology. Finally, the students will learn to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their PhD-study, and network with fellow PhD students within the bone field.

Workload: The full workload of the course is expected to be 87 hours.

Content:          

• Overview of key bone cells including osteoclasts, osteoblasts, and osteocytes involved in bone remodelling and modeling under normal, physiological, and pathophysiological conditions, as well as their regulation in the inner ear and response to mechanical loading.
• Overview of the bone pathophysiology of osteoporosis, rheumatology, rare bone diseases, cancer-induced bone diseases, and parathyroid and kidney diseases, as well as their diagnosis and current therapies.
• Overview of bone marrow cells (including cells related to the immune system) and their role in cancer development and cancer-induced bone pain.
• Introduction to pre-clinical and clinical study design within the bone field, including epidemiology and different rodent models.
• Introduction to pre-clinical and clinical CT and DEXA techniques, in vitro bone cultures of osteoclasts and osteoblasts, and serum markers of their activity.
• Introduction to bone sample preparation and its pathological and histological analysis (hands on).
• There will be a mandatory home assignment equivalent to 0.6 ECTS.

Instructors: TBA

Venue: Sandbjerg Estate, Sandbjergvej 102, 6400 Sønderborg

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, research-year students and research honours programme students from Health, Aarhus University

Course fee:

• PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration. A payment for accommodation of DKK 5470 will be charged.
• PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses. A payment for accommodation of DKK 5470 will be charged.
• Others: A payment for accommodation of DKK 5470 will be charged.

Course dates:

• 23 October 2022
• 24 October 2022 08:30 - 18:00
• 25 October 2022 08:30 - 18:00
• 26 October 2022 08:30 - 18:00
• 27 October 2022 08:30 - 18:00
• 28 October 2022 08:30 - 10:30