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Exploring the emerging role of the host microbiome in tumour heterogeneity

Expand your knowledge about the role of the gut microbiome in cancer and advance the knowledge in omic technologies

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CIVIS focus area
Health
Open to
  • Master's
  • Phd
Field of studies
  • Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Type
  • Short-term
  • CIVIS Hub 3
Course dates
11-16 July 2022
Application deadline extended to 5 May 2022

The Summer School will be organized into 5 modules:

  • A microbiota in health and disease module that will provide the participants with a deep understanding of microbial communities and their diversity, and the impact of these communities on host health and disease as well as guidelines regarding the setup of cancer animal models and microbiota studies, review of relevant terms (microbial communities, species, microbiome, metagenome).
  • A biology meets technology module that will present the advances in the field of microbiota analysis with theoretical and practical approaches to next-generation sequencing (Ion Torrent™ semiconductor sequencing, Illumina, MinION ) with experimental design and sample preparation considerations.
  • A microbiome and big data analytics module that will cover the concepts and techniques of profiling and analyzing large omics data sets needed to characterize microbial communities. This module will enable participants to design an appropriate bioinformatics workflow to process and analyze sequencing data, to perform statistical analyses and to understand and explore raw sequencing read files.
  • A cancer-host-microbiome interplay module that will explore the key signalling networks in cancer and the impact of microbiota in cancer therapy. Participants will perform experiments related to signalling pathway analysis.
  • A translation of omic data into the clinic module that will cover an essential aspect of the microbiota research field- how we translate big data sets into the clinic. Participants will be familiarized with the concepts of personalized medicine, omic technologies (transcriptomics, metabolomics), and nutrigenomics. 

Main topics addressed

  • Microbiome
  • Cancer
  • Omics
  • Tumour heterogeneity

Learning outcomes

  • Microbiome analysis steps
  • Data analysis in microbiome studies
  • Knowledge regarding the signalling pathways involved in cancer
Application deadline extended to 5 May 2022
Location: Bucharest, Romania Format: Blended
Duration of the course: 5 days ECTS: 3* 
Contact: gratiela.gradisteanu@icub.unibuc.ro Language: English (C1)
Contact hours: 50 Student workload: 25

*The recognition of ECTS depends on your home university. 

A maximum of 32 international CIVIS students will be accepted in the course in a total of 40 students.

Students who will not be selected for physical mobility can still attend the lectures online.

Requirements

This CIVIS course is open to Master's and PhD students at one of the 10 CIVIS member universities.

A C1 level of English is required.

Schedule of the course

Throughout the week, enrolled students (PhD, MSc) will actively participate in poster presentations and roundtable discussions where their questions and ideas will be discussed with the keynote speakers and local and visiting professors. Every day, the school will be comprised of 3 lectures in the morning followed by 1 practical session in the afternoon.

Assessment

  • Master students: 3 ECTS will be delivered upon successful completion of all tests-exams evaluation of the knowledge acquired during the summer schools and according to each university-specific procedure. The evaluation materials will be generated before the beginning of each summer school.
  • PhD students: an attestation will be delivered according to the procedures for validation of doctoral training of each university. These attestations will count toward the total number of training hours required for each PhD program.
  • All students: a certificate of attendance will be delivered to all participants. These certificates could contribute to the delivery of a CIVIS Certificate.

Application Process

The application deadline is 5 May 2022.

Candidates need to provide the following information as part of their application:

  • Curriculum Vitae,
  • Motivation letter (1 page) explaining their research interests and why they would like to attend the school,
  • Transcripts indicating the grades received and the ranking for the academic year 2020-2021 (NOT required for PhD students).

Those pieces of information should be sent to this email address.

Selected students will be notified at in May. 

General Eligibility Criteria for CIVIS Courses

Applicants need to be enrolled at their home university in order to be eligible for selection and participation.  If uncertain about your status at your home university (part-time or exchange students etc) please check with your home university’s website or International Office. 

Applicants who will be receiving other Erasmus funds for the duration of the course are not entitled to funding. Participation in the course may still be possible under “zero-grant” status, but applicants should contact their home university in order to confirm this. 

A list of links and contacts for each university can be found in this Q&A.

GDPR Consent

The CIVIS alliance and its member universities will treat the information you provide with respect. Please refer to our privacy policy for more information on our privacy practices. By applying to this course you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

  • Gratiela Gradisteanu, Research Scientist, University of Bucharest- training in microbiome analysis
  • Luminita Marutescu, Associate Professor in Microbiology and Immunology, University of Bucharest - training in flow cytometry
  • Sorina Dinescu- Lecturer, University of Bucharest - training in omic technologies
  • David Hughes, University College Dublin, Ireland
  • Ozan Gundogdu, The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK
  • Claude Lambert, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint-Étienne Saint-Etienne, France
  • Iulia Popescu, Pittsburgh University, USA
  • Laurence Zitvogel, Gustave Roussy, Paris, France