Creating Wolverine in Real Life
Description and Objective
Description and Objective
This module serves as an introductory module for USP students interested in regenerative and precision medicine entrepreneurship and its associated intricacies, including business, regulatory, ethical issues, process of innovation and technology commercialization. This module will broadly cover the fundamental concepts in regenerative and precision medicine such as stem cell biology/therapy, tissue regeneration, organ engineering/bionic man and gene editing. With sufficient technical knowledge and terminology/concepts, students from non-technical backgrounds can interact with science and engineering students intelligently to truly appreciate the complexities involved in bringing these typically controversial technologies from laboratory bench to market. The students would be exposed to and learn from leading practitioners in relevant areas such as the CEOs, academic and industry leaders, regulatory and bioethics experts
Schedule
Schedule
Tuesdays and Fridays, 4.00pm – 6.00pm (USP-SR1)
Structure
Structure
Lectures will be conducted in seminar style with discussions. Before each class, students need to complete pre-class reading (approximately 30 minutes of reading materials). Students need to complete a homework assignment that will require them to do the readings in order to submit before the class. The homework assignment will include answering questions related to the assigned readings and students will also need to provide one question of their own that may be used for class discussions. The pre-class reading assignments given in this module can include book chapters, articles from scientific magazines such as Scientific American and review articles. Answers to homework assignments will be reviewed in following class. There will be a final report at the end of the semester, students will work in teams of 2-3, but submit individual reports. Throughout the semester, there will be invited scientific speakers from local companies and governing bodies, students will have the opportunity to interact with these invited speakers.
Reading
Reading
The pre-class reading can include book chapters, articles from scientific magazines and simple review articles. The followings are some reading materials from which some assigned pages are selected:
• Translational Regenerative Medicine. Atala 2014.
• Regenerative Engineering and Developmental Biology: Principles and Applications. David M. Gardiner. 2017.
• Principles of Tissue Engineering. Lanza. 2013
Pre-requisites
Pre-requisites
There is no pre-requisite for this module. The first class serves as an introductory class to cover basic background concepts and terminology in biology essential for this module, from cell to organ level. Subsequent terms and concepts will be covered as per needed in subsequent classes.
Assessments
Assessments
Individual assignments: - Pre-class homework questions + pre-class answers to textbook questions - Company excursion reflections |
50% 40% 10% |
Projects: - Ethical Debates |
10% 10% |
Class Participation: | 10% |
Final Report (individual report but students can work together in teams of 2-3 members): | 30% |
Total: | 100% |
There is no examination for this module.
Syllabus
Syllabus
Week 1:
● Bootcamp: Introduction to basic concepts and terminology in biology from cells to organs
● Introduction to the regenerative medicine ecosystem and innate repair/regeneration
Week 2:
● Discussion on issues of the Innate repair and regeneration in Nature
● Inducing repair and regeneration by bioactive factors
Week 3:
● Biomaterials and scaffolds
● Stem cell biology
Week 4:
● Stem cell therapy: clinical implementations
● State-of-the-art technologies for stem cell manipulation
Week 5:
● Personalized medicine and ethical issues
● Invited scientific speaker from local stem cell company
Week 6:
● Invited speaker to introduce ethics
● Translational regenerative medicine example – stem cell therapies for liver regeneration.
No reading assignments.
Recess Week
Week 7:
● Bioethics debate
● Excursion to local company. Students have to submit reflection after excursion.
Week 8:
● Engineering implantable tissues (bottom-up approach)
● Engineering implantable tissues (top-down approach)
Week 9:
● Organ regeneration
● Bionic man
Week 10:
● Invited Speaker: commercialization challenges
● Invited Speaker: regulatory challenges
Week 11:
● Invited Speaker: Invited speaker to talk about socioeconomic impact
● Invited Speakers: Biotech companies in SG
Week 12:
● Summary: tackling problems and engineering solutions. No reading assignments.
Week 13:
● Final report due. For this report, students will work in teams of 2-3, but submit individual reports.