The Nobel Prizes explained – the stories of breakthroughs in life sciences 2600-OG-NNT

Lectures:
1. Introduction to Nobel Prize Awards in Medicine and Physiology
2. Why need to eat veggies? Discovery of vitamins (Dam/Doisy, Györgyi, Hopkins)
3. How to save all people on the Earth? Discovery of antibiotics (Fleming/Chain/Florey and Waksman)
4. How to make a human zombie? Discovery of the therapeutic value of lobotomy in certain psychoses (Moniz)
5. Where is the beginning of life? Discovery of the chromosomes (Morgan) and the structure of DNA (Watson/Crick)
6. How do telomeres protect DNA against aging? (Blackburn/Greider/Szostak)
7. How to cure malaria? (Youyou)
8. How to understand the behavior of animals and humans? (Lorenz and Tinbergen)
9. How to activate the immune system and why is it important? (Beutler, Hoffmann, Steinman)
10. How does the brain “see” and “feel”? on processing the vision (Sperry/Hubel/Wiesel), smell (Axel/Buck), and touch (Julius/Patapoutian)?
11. Not only Pavlov’s dogs. On physiology of digestion (Pavlov) and hormonal regulation (Houssay,Banting/Macleod)
12. Stopping cancer. On immunotherapy and gene editing (Allison/Honjo)
13. Why do we need healthy intestines? The story of Helicobacter pylori (Marshall/Warren)
14. How did humans evolve? lessons from humanoid DNA(Pääbo)
15. New epidemics, new vaccines. The story of the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 (Kariko/Weissman)

Total student workload

Contact hours with teacher: - participation in lectures and discussions - 30 hrs - consultations - 2 hrs Self-study hours: - preparation for test- 10 hrs - reading literature - 8 hrs Altogether: 50 hrs (2 ECTS)

Learning outcomes - knowledge

W1: Student has basic knowledge of the major scientific achievements in life sciences W2: Student is familiar with the biographies and achievements of the Nobel Prizes holders in medicine and physiology

Learning outcomes - skills

U1: Student can understand biological processes behind the major scientific achievements U2: Student is capable of searching and reading the current literature U3: Student has the ability of critical thinking and formulating opinions on scientific facts

Learning outcomes - social competencies

K1: Student understands the significance of life sciences and importance of the scientific breakthroughs K2: Student understands the need for constant advancement of life sciences K3: Student recognizes and appreciates different aspects of life sciences.

Course coordinators

Anna Sławińska

Teaching methods

Expository teaching methods: participatory lecture, problem-based lecture

Expository teaching methods

- informative (conventional) lecture
- discussion
- problem-based lecture

Type of course

elective course

Prerequisites

None

Assessment criteria

Assessment methods:
- test: W1, W2, U1, U2, U3, K1, K2

Assessment criteria:
- Test: 100% of the final grade

Test evaluation:
fail- < 60 %
satisfactory- 60-70%
satisfactory plus- 71-80%
good – 81-87%
good plus- 88-94%
very good >94%

Practical placement

n/a

Bibliography

The overview of the achievements
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine
Each lecture will be prepared based on scientific publications (the list will be delivered after each lecture)

Additional information

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 2600-OG-NNT in USOSweb