This program aims to provide students with a strong foundation in fundamental cell biology and a solid base for further studies in the life sciences, clinical biology, biotechnology, and medicine. Specific objectives include creating stable human resources in life sciences by providing experience, skills, and competencies through effective learning.
The program aims to establish a sustainable, multidisciplinary professional network of teaching scientists with shared interests in life sciences and medicine. It seeks to develop personal contacts between project members to facilitate joint dissemination and exploitation of teaching and learning results and applications for other collaborative projects. Lastly, the program aims to improve students' English skills, favouring their integration and future development within the scientific community and the CIVIS alliance.
The physical mobility part will take place between 29 June - 3 July 2026 in Bucharest, Romania. The program is structured as follows:
Students will be divided into teams to investigate the differentiation of an immortalized adipocyte cell line. Each team, supervised by a teacher, will investigate different aspects of the differentiation process:
- Analyzing Adipocyte differentiation. Two Teams (a and b) Team a: Differentiation visualization by lipid droplet staining. Microscopy, conventional and fluorescent. Team b. Differentiation Marker Expression – Perilipin expression through differentiation. Western Blot; Immunohistochemistry
- Analyzing Organellar Subcellular localization. Team a: Organelle observation with transfected fluorescent markers. Microscopy. Subcellular fractionation and Western blot.
- Cell cycle; Apoptosis, necrosis. Vital Colorant Staining. Western blot. The last day and a half will be devoted to summarizing and interpreting their results and preparing a presentation for the last day. Each team will explain the results in an open discussion, and all questions and doubts will be solved.
The virtual module will take place between 24th November 2025 - 16th January 2026. The structure of the online program is outlined below:
The virtual sessions will last 2 hours and take place between 17:00 - 19:00 CET:
- 24-28 November 2025: Prokaryotic versus Eukaryotic Cells: Cytoplasm, Membranes, Cytoskeleton
- 2-3 December 2025: Energy conversion: Mitochondria, Chloroplast
- 5 December 2025: Introduction to Membrane Systems
- 9-10 December 2025: Endoplasmic reticulum
- 12, 16 December 2025: Golgi Apparatus and Endocytosis
- 18 December 2025: Membranes & Vesicle Traffic - Integration
- 6 January 2026: Interphase nucleus. Chromosomes
- 8-9 January 2026: Mitosis/Meiosis
- 15-16 January 2026: Cell cycle signals and control
This program aims to provide students with a strong foundation in fundamental cell biology and a solid base for further studies in the life sciences, clinical biology, biotechnology, and medicine.