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Técnico Lisboa: epigenetic2X
Epigenetics: Human Health

Epigenetics: Human Health

This second course on epigenetics continues our journey through human health and disease. This time we will explore molecular therapies and advances on epigenetic research.
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About This Course

Our journey continues. Welcome to the second stop of our journey into the epigenetic realms of human health and disease.

This is the second course of the epigenetics trilogy. We will recover the link of epigenetics with disease; explore epigenetic-inspired molecular therapeutics to move cells from states of disease back into states of health; and cover some advances on epigenetics, including breakthroughs on inheritance, pain and memory.

Upon concluding these courses, you will be prepared to read the scientific literature in this field and take advanced courses, including "Hands-on Epigenetics (Volume III)" where we cover the foundations of multi-omic data analysis to enter the worldwide research on epigenetics.

Requirements

Successful completion of the preceding course, Epigenetics: Foundations, is highly suggested.
Mastery of foundational concepts on epigenetic mechanisms and human biology is necessary.

Goals

On the molecular therapeutics:

  • understand why, when and how targeted therapies (such as antihormonal therapy, immunotherapy and neoantigen therapy) address disease
  • understand how epigenetic drugs can reverse detrimental epigenetic markers and thus promote health
  • be familiar with advances on stem-cell science therapeutics, including ways of restoring cellular health within our body (in vivo) and through culture-and-transplant (in vitro)

On the epigenetics of our daily lives:

  • understand how epigenetics are related with memory, childhood abuse and neglect, depression, aging or addiction
  • critically understand how scientific experiments are advancing the research in this field
  • be able to separate what is caused by our biology and by our environment (the link between nature and nurture)
  • understand why and how individuals with identical (or similar) genetics differ trait-wise and health-wise
  • be familiar with the epigenetics of inheritance, understanding whether our health is conditioned by ancestor lineage and whether it is possible to disrupt inherited epigenetic markers
  • glimpse view on future therapeutics based on epigenome reprogramming

Target audience

This course is intended for researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, practitioners in the domain of life sciences, and the general public interested in exploring the epigenetics of human health.

Contents

Topic 3

  • structured view on current and future therapeutics targeting the biological mechanisms driving disease
  • molecularly targeted therapies and human health: antibody therapy, immunotherapy and neoantigen therapy
  • external sources of protein and RNA supplementation
  • epigenetic drugs and human health
  • stem-cell science therapeutics: cell transplant, dialysis, somatic cell nuclear transfer, dedifferentiation
  • comprehensive view on molecular medicine and oncological disorders

Topic 4

  • epigenetics and (non-)identical twins, links between our biology and the environment
  • the epigenetics of memory, childhood neglect and abuse, depression, weight, neurological disorders, aging, and addiction
  • the epigenetics of inheritance
  • advances on epigenetics' research from the stance of lab experiments
  • consolidated view on epigenetic-driven study, prediction and treatment of human diseases

Pedagogical strategies

The course is self-paced with the contents of each topic being published upfront. The topics are distributed along 5 weeks.
Each topic has 5 to 8 video lectures, written support material, and exercises to consolidate and deepen your knowledge. The course is designed to take you on an animated journey. The informal discourse, analogies, imagetics and consolidation moments are provided to guarantee an accelerated learning.

Support and feedback available via forum and email. You can directly contact your host, Rui Henriques, rmch@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Assessment methods

There are two mid-term quizzes that need to be answered to allow progress. A certificate will be issued to students getting, at least, 60% of the quizzes correct.

Tutors

Rui Henriques

Rui Henriques is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, where he lectures courses in the domains of Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Biomedical Informatics.

Graduated (2008) and doctorate (2016) by Instituto Superior Técnico, Rui had also a wide-exposure to projects in the healthcare sector as a business analyst at McKinsey and as the head of the AI area at Tekever.

Rui is an associate researcher at INESC-ID since 2018, where he researches on how to learn from structured, high-dimensional, heterogeneous and spatiotemporal data. His research contributions address real-worlds problems in the biomedical and urban domains.

Creative Commons License

The following course and its contents are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Acknowledgments

This MOOC is partially supported by EIT Health. Our gratitude.

EIT Health