EBME 462. Cellular and Molecular Imaging
A new course focused on cellular and molecular imaging will be held during the Spring 2005 semester to meet the educational needs of the increasing number of graduate students within the biomedical imaging program and associated research centers at Case.
Biomedical imaging at Case is in an invigorated stage of growth. Five years ago, investigators in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Radiology, Physics, and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center began a campus-wide and regional program to build a broad imaging research program with special emphasis in small animal and in vivo cellular and molecular imaging . Since that time, we have received over $17 million to acquire imaging infrastructure, an additional net of $16 million has been acquired to fund multidisciplinary research teams (with particular emphasis in cancer research), and funds have been obtained to hire three new faculty members in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and create three additional new appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Radiology, and Physics. This growth of research infrastructure, research programs, and new faculty hires to compliment the established biomedical imaging faculty has naturally led to the increased recruitment of graduate students within this area. These graduate students need to develop a strong foundation in cellular and molecular imaging at an early stage in their graduate careers in order to participate within this active research program. This course will be a cornerstone of this foundation.
Cellular and molecular imaging research connects well with many other Case research centers, including the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center , the Center for Modeling Integrated Metabolic Systems (MIMS), the Memory and Aging Center , the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and the new Center of Biomolecular and Nanoscale Engineering for Targeted Therapeutics (BioNETT). Graduate students and other members of these other centers have expressed strong interest in multidisciplinary research involving biomedical imaging. These graduate students need to develop a fundamental understanding of biomedical imaging in order to interact within these multidisciplinary research teams. This course will provide the basis for this fundamental understanding of cellular and molecular imaging . This course will focus on biomedical imaging to address problems at the cellular and molecular levels. Topics include endogenous methods to assess molecular compositions, imaging agents, reporter genes and proteins, drug delivery, validation, industrial applications, and translational research. These topics will be discussed int he context of applications in cancer, cardiology, central nervous system, ophthalmology, musculoskeletal diseases, pulmonary diseases, and metabolic diseases. Emphasis will be placed on an interdiscplinary problem-based approach to investigate the application of biomedical imaging to biological & disease areas. Formal lectures will be followed by discussion and problem-based assignments after class sessions. The problem-based assignments will be used as the primary gauge to assess learning; a mid-term exam and a final exam will also be scheduled.
Course Goals
The primary goal of this course is the development of creative thinking skills : the course will develop skills to integrate the content of EBME 410 (Fundamentals of Medical Imaging) and EBME 451 (Molecular and Cellular Physiology) to develop creative insights into molecular imaging. At the end of the course, students should be able to apply cellular and molecular imaging technologies to solve problems related to their specific research interests.
This course has a secondary goal to develop the ability to use the written language well and thoughtfully through many written problem-based assignments.
This course has a secondary goal of providing specific content : the course will review and provide more depth to EBME 410 and EBME 451 course content that is specific to cellular and molecular imaging. The core of the course content will be directly derived from publications of the Society for Molecular Imaging and the Academy of Molecular Imaging , and publications specific for cellular and molecular imaging of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the Society of Nuclear Medicine, and other professional societies. Therefore, course graduates should be able to build on this specific content to understand these societies' future publications that are specific to cellular and molecular imaging.
Teaching Materials
The course is based on journal articles and other reference materials. One or two articles are selected as required reading for each lecture. The remaining articles are optional reading, although some of these optional articles may be listed as “highly recommended”. All required teaching materials will be available in black & white hardcopy form. All required and most optional teaching materials are available as PDFs on a CDROM. Other journal articles that you find relevant to the lecture topic may also be used as optional articles; for example, many references listed in required journal articles are excellent optional journal articles. We strongly recommend that at least one optional article should be included in each homework assignment (see below).
The required reading for each lecture should be completed BEFORE each lecture. The lectures will include substantial discussion of these required lectures, so failure to read the required reading will likely result in a failure to participate in these in-class discussions.
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