Basic Cell Biology

This program aims to provide students a strong foundation in fundamental cell biology, a solid base for further studies in life sciences, clinical biology, biotechnology, medicine. The program seeks to promote cultural exchange and collaboration within the CIVIS alliance, allowing students to interact and work together to acquire knowledge and develop as future scientists.

The Teaching Unit follows a blended learning approach, consisting of two modules. The first module is an active theoretical module, with virtual courses held from February to May 2025, including synchronous teaching sessions, face-to-face interaction with students, small international group work, asynchronous online sessions to develop international collaborative work and prepare oral presentations. The second module is a physical mobility module, with students spending a week in the host laboratory in July 2025, focused on introducing students to design and interpretation of experiments.

The program is divided in four knowledge blocks:

1. Prokaryotic versus Eukaryotic Cells: Cytoplasm, Cytosol Membranes, Cytoskeleton,
2. Energy conversion: Mitochondria, Chloroplast,
3. Organelles and the secretory Pathway: Endoplasmic Reticulum, Golgi Apparatus, Endocytosis, Vesicle Traffic,
4. Nucleus Organization and Cell Cycle: Chromosomes, Mitosis, Meiosis, Cell Cycle & Mechanisms of Cellular Death

Students acquire knowledge on Cell Biology by establishing an interactive framework. The main learning objective is to reach a comprehensive understanding of structure and function of the cell, its organelles and to familiarize with different basic techniques used in Cell Biology. At the end of this course, the students should be able to:

• Know, understand cell morphology, ultrastructure, function, cell cycle, proliferation.
• Understand some of the technologies currently used in research in cellular biology.

The face-to-face part will take place at  from 30th June to 4th July 2025.

The physical mobility consists in a week of practical lab work in which students carry out a small project. Students will explore relevant technics in the field in an integrative manner, closer to real science than the usual procedural practical teaching. For practical and didactic reasons, the physical mobility will take place from June 30th to July 4th 2025 at Aix-Marseille Université.

The activities and timetable proposed for the training are as follows but may be modified according to the project program and timetable:

Preliminary program 

Week 1

11 February

• Introduction to the topic
• Introduction to Basic Cell Biology

13 February

• Prokaryotic vs eukaryotic cells (Asynchronous practical activities)
• Cytoplasm & Cytosol (Asynchronous practical activities)

Week 2

25 February

• Plasma Membrane
• Extracellular Matrix

27 February

• Membrane & Matrix
• Cytoskeleton 1

Week 3

4 March

• Cytoskeleton 2

6 March

• Mitochondria

Week 4

11 March

• Chloroplasts
• Mitochondria vs chloroplasts

13 March

• Introduction to membranous systems (Asynchronous practical activities & theory)

Week 5

18 March

• Endoplasmic reticulum 1 & 2

20 March

• Endoplasmic reticulum 3 & 4

21 March

• Golgi Apparatus (Asynchronous theory)
• Endocytosis (Asynchronous practical activities)

Week 6

25 March

• Golgi apparatus 
• Endocytosis

27 March

• Membranes & Vesicles Traffic – Integration

28 March

• Interphasic nucleus & chromosomes 1 & 2 (Asynchronous theory and practical activities)

Week 7

1 April

• Cell Cycle phases

3 April

• Mitosis/Meiosis 1 & 2

Week 8

15 April

• Mitosis/Meiosis 3 & 4

17 April 

• Cell cycle signals & control 1
• Aging and cell death 1

Week 9

22 April

• Cell cycle signals & control 2 & 3

24 April

• Aging and cell death 2 & 3

Virtual and physical mobility modules are separated in time and therefore will be assessed independently.

Virtual module. Assessment is intended to be mostly formative, hence it will have a strong continuous component (70%) although it will include a final exam, 30%. Continuous assessment: in every knowledge block several activities will be designed for assessment. They will be in class discussed, marked and personalized feedback will be given. Depending on the feedback, teachers might allow students to re-submit an activity. Final exam: it will be mostly problem based. It will be corrected in class and peer marked. Students will have to mark their peers and provide feedback accordingly. Marking and feedback will be teacher reviewed before handing it to the students. 

Physical mobility module. Assessment will have two parts and, since the module is fully teamwork based, developed and marked in teams. First, through the module they will have to collect their results and prepare a small presentation to discuss them with their peers. Students and teachers will give feedback. Second, in the last day, they will be given a set of results related to the ones they obtained. They will have to interpret them and use them to answer a single scientific question. At the end of the session, answers will be discussed in class and the teachers will give personalized feedback to each team. Presentation/discussion and problem solving will be teacher marked.

Motivation Letter

Level of english (According to CEFR)

CV

• Laurence Ladrière, Université libre de Bruxelles ULB (Belgium) : Biology & Diabetes
• Juan J. Arredondo Lamas, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) : Biochemistry
• Mar Pérez Martínez, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) : Anatomy, Histology & Neurosciences
• Daniela Cucu,University of Bucharest (Romania) : Anatomy, Animal Physiology and Biophysics
• Sylvie Thuault, Aix-Marseille Université (France) : Biology & Cancerology
• Claudio Rivera Baeza, Aix-Marseille Université (France) : Biology & Neurosciences