Current Issues in Developmental Biology

Course manual 2017/2018

Course content

Whether you continue your career in scientific research or in any other field (business, politics, communication, teaching, entrepreneurship), you will continuously come into contact with new scientific discoveries. In this day and age, many of those are related to various aspects of developmental biology (think about aging research and regenerative medicine, for instance). Having been trained as a scientist, you will be expected to be able to critically evaluate the claims that you hear or read in the news. For this, it is crucial that you are able to go beyond the tweet, newspaper article or blogpost and back to the original source: the scientific publication. 

Students will get the opportunity to broadly sample the recent (i.e. mostly published in the last 2 years) developmental biology literature. Papers will be discussed in a 'journal club' style setting. Class size will intentionally be kept small, to stimulate and interactive exchanges of ideas and opinions.

Study materials

Syllabus

• Hand-outs and papers, posted on Blackboard.

Objectives

In this course, students will be trained to critically read and discuss research articles from the primary literature, focusing on the field of Developmental Biology. The main goals are

• to get an overview of current concepts and challenges in developmental biology research and the state-of-the-art experimental approaches used to tackle these.
• to develop the analytical skills to interpret the primary literature in a time when scientific research is becoming increasingly more multidisciplinary.
• to develop the skills to concisely present a paper in front of a peer group.
• to develop the critical skills and confidence to discuss and critique a paper within a peer group.

 By the time the course is completed, the student should be able to:

• discuss current concepts and challenges in developmental biology research and the state-of-the-art experimental approaches used to tackle these.
• analyze and interpret the primary literature.
• concisely present a paper in front of a peer group.
• discuss and critique a paper within a peer group.
• dissect the strength and weaknesses of a primary research article.

Teaching methods

• Self-study
• Supervision/feedback meeting
• journal club

Weekly group sessions ('journal club' style) under the guidance of dr. Renée van Amerongen and dr. Frank Jacobs. At least one guest speaker will be invited whose paper will be discussed in class.

Students are expected to show up to class prepared, having read the paper to be discussed and to actively take part in the in class discussions.

Learning activities

Attendance

The programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (OER-B).

Additional requirements for this course:

Students can miss one class without any repercussions, but they do need to communicate this in advance with the course coordinators. Students are expected to show up prepared and to actively participate in the in class discussions. The setting is optimal for an interactive exchange of ideas and offers a safe environment to practice and improve scientific discussion skills. 

Assessment

The final grade will be calculated based on the in class participation (presentation and discussion) and written assignments.

Inspection of assessed work

Contact the course coordinator to make an appointment for inspection.

Assignments

Critique of paper

• You will write a short critique of the paper that you discussed during the class. This critique should be a synthesis of the in-class discussion and your own opinion of the paper. It should thus incorporate the points that were brought up during class, so make sure to collect these/write them down on ‘your’ evening!

Review

• The review should be a maximum of 10 typed, 12-point font, double-spaced pages. The review should be clearly organized into the following sections: Begin with a summary of relevant background information and statement of the major question being addressed and hypotheses tested (1-2 pages), a discussion of the experimental approaches- explaining the question/hypothesis, methodology, results and interpretation of the data (2-4 pages), a summary of the overall conclusions, including a discussion of whether hypotheses were supported or not, and the strengths and weaknesses of the paper (1-2 pages), and a proposal of one further experiment you would like to do to address the next question (1-2 pages). A bibliography, not part of the 10-page limit, should be included.

Questions about paper

Presentation assigned paper

Details on the grading and % of the final grade can be found in the course syllabus, which will be made available via Blackboard.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.uva.nl/plagiarism

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

Up to date information on the course can be found at http://vanamerongenlab.nl/index.php?main=CIIDB 

Last minute changes will be communicated by e-mail via Blackboard.

Prior to the start of the course all students will receive a PDF file with the course syllabus, which contains all of the details about the course.

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. R. van Amerongen

Co-coordinator

• dr. F.M.J. Jacobs