BIOME - Core: Transplantation Medicine
Lecture and research topics of the 18-month curriculum: The University Hospital of Essen is among the leading institutions in Europe in the field of organ transplantation. To improve organ transplantation and to overcome shortages of organ donation and limitations in patient and graft survival after transplantation it is our aim to strengthen the research endeavour “Basic Science in Transplantation Medicine”. In a close cooperation between surgeons, physicians and basic scientists, the main research topics are (I) organ protection and organ regeneration, (II) inflammation and (III) immunity in transplantation.
Lectures in the first half of this course focus on basic knowledge and the clinical aspects of transplantation and in the second on various aspects of basic science in transplantation such as preservation injury, tubular injury induced by immunosuppressive medication, monocyte/macrophage-mediated organ- and recipient inflammation, natural killer cell functions after transplantation, tolerogenic dendritic cells, genetic modification of stem cells, induction of T cell tolerance, modification of T lymphocyte functions due to CNS-immune system interaction, and risk assessment and monitoring in kidney transplantation. Following the lectures, the M.D./Ph.D. students present and discuss their own results in a graduate seminar.
Although this course is specifically aimed at meeting the needs of M.D. graduates for a structured research programme, Ph.D. graduates are also most welcome to sign up for this core for an 18-month period. Thereafter these doctorates (i.e. Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. candidates) may join one of BIOME's other cores for a further 1,5 years in order to meet the full three-year participation requirements.