Aim and content

This course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School), and for PhD Students from NorDoc member faculties. All other participants must pay the course fee.

Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at a Danish university, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. This also applies to PhD students from NorDoc member faculties. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to applicants on the waiting list.

Learning objectives

A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:

1. Knowledge: Detailed physiological knowledge on regulatory mechanisms for the cardiovascular system in addition to pathophysiology. The student is expected to gain insight into special methods of relevance within the field – ranging from evaluation with imaging, Doppler and tracer techniques to sampling of tissue or blood, assessment of neural activity. Knowledge on common intervention techniques e.g., manipulation with blood volume, vasodilation, neural blocking, baroreceptors etc.

2. Skills: The student will get hand on experience with some of the available techniques (Doppler flow, echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging of the heart, determination of cardiac output and blood volume, evaluation of arterial baroreceptor function), experiments on animals and work with study design. Oral presentation of project etc.

3. Competences: The student will be able to integrate knowledge from the “different disciplines” (methods and areas of interest) – evaluate strength/weaknesses of measures/study design and provide realistic perspectives on own findings

Content

This course covers important theoretical and practical aspects of methods in integrative human cardiovascular studies. The purpose is to provide the participants with knowledge of advantages and pitfalls of these methods during lectures and demonstrating methods and allow participants hands-on experience during practical sessions.

Participants

PhD students working with cardiovascular physiology/pathophysiology – i.e. medical, human biology, human physiology or animal biology.
There are available seats for Postdocs and PhD students from outside out Scandinavia. Please contact Pernille Højvang, pehn@biomed.au.dk, for registration.

Relevance to graduate programmes

The course is relevant to PhD students from the following graduate programmes at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH:

• Cardiovascular Research
• Basic and Clinical Research in Musculoskeletal Sciences
• Basic Metabolic Research

Form

27 lectures. 8 hours of laboratory-experiments/practical (2 workshops with participant demonstrations and in vivo demonstrations. Homework required (reading of background material + oral presentation of Ph.D. project). Evaluation/exam- knowledge review.

Language

English.

Course director

Thomas Jespersen, PhD, Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences: thojes@sund.ku.dk
Mads Fischer PhD, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports: mf@nexs.ku.dk

Teachers

International:
Carsten Lundby, Professor, PhD (NOR) Lillehammer: carsten.lundby@inn.no
Craig G. Crandall, Professor, PhD (USA): CraigCrandall@texashealth.org
Damian Bailey, Professor, PhD (UK): damian.bailey@southwales.ac.uk
James (Jim) A. Pawelczyk, Professor (USA): jap18@psu.edu
James Fisher, Professor, PhD (NZ): jp.fisher@auckland.ac.nz
Johannes Van Lieshout, Professor, MD, PhD (NL): jjvanlieshout@gmail.com
José González-Alonso, Professor, PhD (UK): Jose.Gonzalez-Alonso@brunel.ac.uk
Katarina Steding Ehrenborg, Professor (SWE): katarina.steding_ehrenborg@med.lu.se
Patrice Brassard, (CA): patrice.brassard@kin.ulaval.ca
Paul Fadel, Professor, PhD (USA): paul.fadel@uta.edu
Scott Smith, Professor, PhD (USA): Scott.Smith@UTSouthwestern.edu

National:
Anders Perner, Professor, MD, PhD (UCPH - Department of Clinical Medicine)
Christian Aalkjær, Professor (AU - Department of Biomedicine)
Jakob Stensballe, MD, PhD (DK) (UCPH - Department of Clinical Medicine)
Julie Hertel, DVM, PhD (UCPH - Department of Biomedical Sciences)
Kim Bredahl MD, PhD (UCPH - Department of Clinical Medicine)
Kirstine Callø, Assoc. Professor PhD (UCPH - Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences)
Lars Nybo, Professor, PhD (UCPH - Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports);
Lasse Gliemann, Assoc. Professor PhD (UCPH - Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports)
Mads Fischer, Postdoc PhD (UCPH - Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports)
Niels H. Secher Professor, MD, DMSc (UCPH - Department of Clinical Medicine)
Nicolai B. Foss Assoc. Professor, MD, DMSc (UCPH - Department of Clinical Medicine)
Per Lav Madsen, MD, DMSc (UCPH - Department of Clinical Medicine)
Thomas Jespersen, PhD, Professor (UCPH - Department of Biomedical Sciences)
Tobias Wang, Professor, PhD (AU - Department of Biology – Zoophysiology)
Ylva Hellsten Professor, DMSc (UCPH - Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports)

Course location

Danske Studenters Roklub (DSR) - Strandvaenget 55, 2100 Copenhagen + laboratory-experiments at SUND-Frederiksberg and the August Krogh Institute.

Allocation of seats

Seats to PhD students from other Danish universities will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules. Applications from other participants will be considered after the last day of enrolment.