751-6125-00L  Practical Course in Molecular Physiology

SemesterAutumn Semester 2017
LecturersS. E. Ulbrich
Periodicityyearly recurring course
Language of instructionEnglish


AbstractThis course is intended to intensify and broaden the knowledge of molecular biology gained during the bachelor lab practical course. It directly allows students to commence a master thesis with a detailed knowledge of pitfalls in experimental setup. It will also sensitize for the awareness of biological and technical variance in experimental research.
ObjectiveThe course will be divided in two parts:
Experimental part:
- Isolation of leukocytes from blood and milk (cattle)
- Culture of isolated cells and stimulation, e.g., with LPS
- Extraction of RNA
- Quantification and quality control of RNA (Nanodrop, Fluorometer, Bioanalyzer)
- Analysis of gene expression by the use of quantitative real-time RT-PCR
Theoretical part:
- Principles of primary cell culture and transcriptional regulation, methods for analytical detection
- Bioinformatics (scientific databases, sequence analysis, biostatistics)
- Presentations by the students (e.g. techniques for analysis of physiological regulatory processes, application examples)
ContentIn this practical course the students will achieve a comprehensive understanding of molecular physiology in livestock research. A cell culture experiment using blood and milk leucocytes under pathogen-associated treatment will be performed and the analysis of differential gene expression undertaken. The primary cell culture study will give insights into the laboratory work undertaken in animal physiology research. It will include the general discussion of strategies for an appropriate experimental setup in livestock research and possible methods and tools for the analysis. Hands-on cell culture and harvesting, preanalytical sample preparation and measurement implementation as well as the analysis of differential gene expression, data analysis and statistical evaluation using bioinformatics will be performed. In addition, the students will present talks based on state-of-the-art primary literature about related topics to prepare for the course and to complement the provided information. The course will enable the students to design, perform and evaluate laboratory in vitro investigations of physiological regulatory processes on a cellular level.