Education
At CMM, one of the missions is to educate the next generation of biomedical professionals at the level of BSc, MSc, PhD and Tenure track Principal Investigators.
At all levels, our primary focus in education is linked to our expertise: molecular and cell biology, cancer (and other diseases), metabolism, bioinformatics, etc.
We believe that it is extremely important that our education has strong links with current CMM research and ‘real life’ research.
We expect contributions to our education obligations from all our employees, from PhD student to PI. We also have a number of ‘dedicated’ teaching staff members to ensure a strong foundation of teachers and education coordinators.
Below, we introduce our dedicated teachers, their responsibilities and highlight their collaboration with our microscope facility.
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Linda Hartkamp
I am mostly involved in the BSc Biomedical Sciences but I also teach in courses in the Medicine BSc. Courses I coordinate are first year BMW course ‘Cellen’ and elective course ‘Hormonen en Homeostase’. Additionally, I coordinate and organize CMM education together with Koen Braat.
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Marlies Ludikhuize
I am teaching, coordinating and developing courses in the bachelors Biomedical Sciences and Medicine. My main tasks are coordinating the first year course ‘Weefsels’ in the bachelor Biomedical Sciences and co-coordinating ‘Gezonde en Zieke Cellen 1’, a first year Medicine course. I am one of the core teachers in the Biomedical Sciences course ‘Genoom’ and I have additional teaching tasks in other bachelor courses.
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Robin Bos
I coordinate an elective in the BSc Biomedical Sciences curriculum: ‘Communiceren via het DNA lab’. In this course, I teach year 3 students about science communication, didactics, and, most importantly, how to teach the ‘Taal van de Tumor’ DNA-lab in secondary school classes. During this lesson, secondary school students try to figure out which mutations are present in the tumour DNA of a breast cancer patient by isolating DNA, preparing a PCR and running a gel electrophoresis experiment. In addition to my role as a teacher, I also coordinate outreach activities for the Diversity and Inclusion Platform of the UMC Utrecht.
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Eline Brombacher
My main tasks are for the BSc Biomedical Sciences. I coordinate the first year course ‘Genoom’ and teach in the elective course ‘Hormonen en Homeostase’. Other tasks include tutoring students and teaching practicals in various courses. Additionally, I am involved in teaching (molecular) cell biology in the BSc Medicine.
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Terry Huisman
I teach bioinformatics in the data science curriculum of the Biomedical Sciences bachelor and several master courses, most notably ‘Onderzoeksmethoden’, ‘Bio-informatica’, and ‘Advanced Bioinformatics’. One of my favorite aspects of teaching is developing new content. Besides teaching, I am also doing HIV research at the Center for Translational Immunology.
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STEM education meets state-of-the-art imaging
To keep up with international STEM education qualifications Nalan Liv and Corlinda ten Brink of the Cell Microscopy Core (see facilities) together with Linda Hartkamp of the teaching staff have completely re-structured microscopy education within the UMCU. Now, both BMW Biomedical and GNK Medical students in UMCU effectively learn how light and electron microscopy techniques are used to study cells, evaluate disease processes and aid to diagnostic decision making through:
Acquisition of new education microscopes to replace the old equipment dating back to the 70s
Incorporation of virtual microscopy simulators and an online learning environment
Introduction of virtual microscopy education
Redesign of all practical microscopy sessions in the course ‘Cellen’ and ‘GZC-1’ to cover relevant microscopy and cell biology themes in a modernized education environment
The preparation of a completely new and up-to-date sample set (>200 samples) of cells cultured on coverslips visualizing different organelles