Summer School: Single-cell approaches and omics

Exploring the emerging role of the host microbiome in tumour heterogeneity

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CIVIS focus area
Health
Open to
  • Master's
  • PhD candidates/ students
Field of studies
  • Medicine and Health
  • Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Type
  • Short-term
Course dates
11-16 July 2022

This CIVIS International School is a multidisciplinary collaborative program that will provide students with intensive, cutting-edge education in the areas of modern cancer biology and immunology. The general theme chosen is tumour heterogeneity, a phenomenon that influences all aspects of current basic and clinical cancer research. Tumour heterogeneity describes the differences between tumours of the same type in different patients, and between cells within the same tumour. It is the result of an overly complex landscape of cellular interactions between (pre)malignant cells and a dynamic tumour ecosystem, which hosts cells of the stroma and the immune system. Understanding the mechanisms underlying tumour heterogeneity is crucial to solving the challenges faced by researchers and clinicians in treating the most lethal aspects of cancer, such as metastasis and resistance to therapy.

Programme

The programme is organized into five modules:

  1. 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).
  2.  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.
  3. 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.
  4. A cancer-host-microbiome interplay module that will explore the key signaling networks in cancer and the impact of microbiota in cancer therapy. Participants will perform experiments related to signaling pathway analysis (Western blot, immunofluorescence, flow cytometry).
  5. 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

Learning outcomes and evaluation

Master & PhD students

On-site, students will be divided into 8 groups of 5 students. Each group will present a research idea (elevator pitch) to the community, a round table with discussion will follow. Students will meet 4 times in small groups to work on their presentation.

Extended scientific community

A poster session will profile the work of young scientists.

  • The summer school will welcome 40 CIVIS students face-to-face (number may vary according to sanitary regulations) and it is also open to the entire scientific community via videoconferencing.
  • Applicants should have some experience in microbiology, oncology, molecular biology, bioinformatics or immunology.
  • Each student should bring a laptop.
  • Our summer school is designed for international PhD and Master’s students in life sciences, medicine, and computer science who are seeking to further their knowledge and skills in immuno-oncology research using the latest analytical methods.

Keynote speakers

  • 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

Registration - Application Deadline: April 15, 2022

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

  • Curriculum Vitae,
  • Motivation letter (1 page) explaining your research interests and why you 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).

These documents need to be sent online to the organising committee at the University of Bucharest: