MEDFL5246 – Biology of Ageing
Course description
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
Biology of Ageing’ covers evolutionary and mechanistic theories of ageing; comparative biology of ageing; the new model organism genetics of lifespan (eg C. elegans, Drosophila, mouse); methods in ageing research (eg functional genomic analysis); the biology of dietary restriction; cellular senescence and senotherapy, telomeres and cancer; ageing-related disease; the biology of insulin signalling, energy handling and associated diseases (eg diabetes and obesity); stem cell ageing; prospects for treatments for ageing; and social and ethical issues relating to research on ageing. This course is inspired by the ‘Biology of Ageing’ course (BIOL0022) initiated and lead by NO-Age Network (www.noage100.com) International member Prof. David Gems, University College London, UK.
The course will be composed of around 23 lectures by leading researchers in their fields. The course coordinators are Associate Prof. Evandro Fei Fang (https://evandrofanglab.com/) and Prof. Hilde L. Nilsen (https://www.med.uio.no/klinmed/english/people/aca/hildni/).
Indicative lecture topics – proposed
- Lecture 01: Introduction to ageing
- Lecture 02: Mechanistic theories of ageing (ageing theories)
- Lecture 03: Damage and maintenance
- Lecture 04: Evolution of ageing
- Lecture 05: Comparative biology of ageing
- Lecture 06: The biology of immortality
- Lecture 07: Studies of ageing using model organisms
- Lecture 08: Normal ageing and Premature ageing diseases
- Lecture 09: DNA damage and telomere attrition
- Lecture 10: Senescence
- Lecture 11: Mitochondrial dysfunction
- Lecture 12: Loss of proteostasis and compromised autophagy
- Lecture 13: Stem cell exhaustion
- Lecture 14: Epigenetic alterations
- Lecture 15: Others: deregulated nutrient sensing and altered intercellular communication
- Lecture 16: Ageing and neurodegeneration
- Lecture 17: Age-related metabolic diseases
- Lecture 18: The ageing mouth
- Lecture 19: Exercise and healthy ageing
- Lecture 20: Dietary restriction
- Lecture 21: Others: microbiome, small compounds
- Lecture 22: Philosophical, social, ethical, and gender influences on ageing, and ageism
- Lecture 23: Impact on human society of ageing research: healthcare system, economy, policy making etc
Learning outcome
- To attain a good grasp of the various facets of the biology of ageing and longevity (evolutionary biology, biodemography, genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, endocrinology, etc) and the relationship between them.
- To understand the main theories of ageing, in terms of evolutionary and proximate mechanisms.
- To understand some of the major diseases of ageing, and their etiologies in the underlying biology of ageing.
- Discuss controversial ethical, philosophical and social issues relating to this work.
Admission
MEDFL5246 is restricted to students at the Medical Student Research Programme at the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Dentistry, UiO.
Course registration:
- Students apply in StudentWeb.
- Enrollment to this course is automatically registered in StudentWeb. Applicants will be notified immediately if their application to the course is granted.
The courses MEDFL5246 and MF9246 have common admission.
Prerequisites
Formal prerequisite knowledge
Mandatory work/activity conducted in advance: to read the below papers ahead:
- The hallmarks of ageing (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23746838/)
- The quest to slow ageing through drug discovery (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32467649/
- A research agenda for ageing in China in the 21st century (2nd edition): Focusing on basic and translational research, long-term care, policy and social networks (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32971255/)
Recommended previous knowledge
Background on biology, biochemistry, or other related topics.
Overlapping courses
- 4 credits overlap with MF9245 – Biology of Ageing (continued)
- 4 credits overlap with MEDFL5245 – Biology of Ageing (continued)
Teaching
The teaching tasks include:
Around 23 lectures (1 h for each lecture)
You have to participate in at least 80 % of the teaching to be allowed to take the exam. Attendance will be registered.
Examination
Course assessment
The exam is staged and has three stages:
1. Essay writing: Three essays to be selected from six questions. Worth 100% of total. For each essay:
- A length of at least 1000 words is needed (exclude references);
- At least 10 references should be cited;
- The formats of the assays are ‘Arial’, size ‘12’, line spacing 1.0.
2. Peer review: Each participant will review one course participant’ exam paper. The papers will be randomly assigned to the participants.
3. Revision and final submission: Each participant should revise the original exam paper in light of the peer review they have received.
Digital examination
The written examination is conducted in the digital examination system Inspera. You will need to familiarize yourself with the digital examination arrangements in Inspera.
Read more about written examinations using Inspera.
Language of examination
The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.
Explanations and appeals
Resit an examination
Withdrawal from an examination
It is possible to take the exam up to 3 times. If you withdraw from the exam after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt.
Special examination arrangements
Application form, deadline and requirements for special examination arrangements.
Evaluation
The course is subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students to participate in a more comprehensive evaluation.