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Brokers and Translators in Development: a focus on civil society

Optimal communication between cells is a prerequisite for proper functioning of the human body. The course BBS20042 Cell Signalling is directed to understand underlying mechanisms how cells communicate in homeostasis and how altered cellular communication is involved in diseases. The course contains 4 overall themes: a) cellular communication routes, b) cell-derived molecules as signalling mediators c) cellular responses dependent on external signals and d) pathological alterations in cell signalling and biotechnology techniques to investigate this. The learning activities consist of lectures, PBL tasks, practicals, concept mapping and journal clubs and are all directed to understand underlying signalling mechanisms responsible for homeostatic processes and disease processes. The contents will extend examples that were included in previous BBS courses but now with a specific focus on cell signalling mechanisms. Additionally, students will learn to understand how a dysregulation of cell signalling leads to pathological conditions, including toxicity responses resulting in cancer. Furthermore, students will obtain knowledge on the application of recent biotechnology tools (e.g. CRISPR) to investigate normal and dysregulated cell signalling.