Course Description

This course consists of a series of lectures, seminars, journal clubs and hand-on laboratory work. Lectures will introduce you to the topics relevant to the field of tissue engineering and cellular therapies in regenerative medicine such as Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production of cells for cellular therapies, choosing the right cell type for a specific cell therapy, the importance of the extracellular matrix in regeneration of tissue, the role of biomechanical and biophysical stimuli in tissue engineering and creating  three-dimensional (3D) environments for cells and vital implants.

Students will team up to present a research article (“Journal Club”), as well as a seminar topic relevant to the this field of in order to gain knowledge in how to read, present and evaluate scientific research papers and to become more acquainted with standard and new techniques that can be used in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Hands-on work in the laboratory will include sterile cell culture techniques, how to isolate and culture mesenchymal stem cells from tissue, creating and assessing 3D cellular environments and analyzing their biomechanical properties. The language of instruction is English and participants are interdisciplinary, as the course can be taken by both medical students from the medical faculty of the University of Freiburg and bachelor students from the University College Freiburg that are studying Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS students).

General Information

Course Director: PD Dr. Melanie Hart

Lecturers: PD Dr. Melanie Hart, Prof. Dr. Bernd Rolauffs, Prof. Dr. Anke Bernstein, Dr. Brigitte Altmann

Seminar and Journal Club Leaders: PD Dr. Melanie Hart, PD Dr. Susanne Proksch, Dr. Brigitte Altmann

Lab Instructors: PD Dr. Melanie Hart, Prof. Dr. Anke Bernstein, Dr. Michael Seidenstücker

Accreditation: for medical students, the course is accredited as “Wahlfach”, for LAS students the course is accredited with 6 credits.

Schedule: annually in the winter semester

Location / Time: G.E.R.N. laboratory, Engesserstr. 4, Freiburg

Student Registration

LAS students: Campus Management System HISinOne during registration periods that are organized by University College Freiburg

Medical students: ILIAS (Chirurgie – Orthopädie/Unfallchirugie – Blockpraktikum – OSCE – Fakultative Lehrveranstaltungen)