Advanced Studies Course Program

Program Description

The Advanced Studies Course is designed as a first year PhD lecture course + innovation training + lab visit. It consists of one semester of courses and one semester for research initiation, partnerships and placement.

The goal is for 30 students per year to be admitted, with entrance exams and interviews.

Each student follows six curricular modules (two weeks each, intensive). Four of these modules are core, mandatory modules, and the two remaining requirements are electives from a selection of three to four, which may change yearly. Teams of lead faculty (typically one Portuguese and one MIT) have been identified for curriculum development and teaching.

4 mandatory core modules:

M1. Innovation in Bioengineering (C Cooney / JA Girão FE/UNL)
The subject matter will consider the multiple stages of innovation in biomedical technologies: generation of ideas, nurturing these ideas through laboratory research and development, and into commercialization. Innovation is considered through the multiple lenses that include natural sciences, engineering, management sciences and business development. An action oriented approach to teaching how to translate biomedical innovation to market impact is i-Teams. Identifying the best path for commercializing a breakthrough technology is an iterative process and requires creating a go-to-market strategy. Students are expected to put forth hypotheses, test them, then go back and revise them based on customer inputs and other data fro the market place. At several points, teams will have the opportunity to present snapshots of their progress, receive feedback, and refine their assumptions and tactics. The goal of the class is to explore, identify and analyze the path “from idea to impact” for early stage innovative technology. At the end of the course, your team will have identified the most promising market(s) and impact.

M2. Bioprocess Engineering (Daniel Wang / João Crespo)
This class focuses on enzyme bioreactors; culture medium engineering; regime analysis; scale-up and scale-down; multiphase bioreactors; microbioreactors; bioprocess modeling and control; down-stream processing and integrated bioprocessing.

M3. Computational Biosystems Science & Engineering (Bruce Tidor / Eugénio Ferreira)
This class provides an introduction to computational biology, emphasizing the fundamentals of nucleic acid and protein sequence and structural analysis. It also includes an introduction to the analysis of complex biological principles. Covers principles and methods used for sequence alignment, motif finding, structural modeling, structure prediction, and network modeling. This course is based on a multi-disciplinary approach for obtaining, modeling, organizing and managing large volumes of data, obtained experimentally or computationally. The central objective is to educate students in the techniques required to carry out research in this area.

M4. Cell & Tissue Engineering (Robert Langer & Lino Ferreira / Joaquim Cabral)
The aim of this class is to give theoretical fundamentals on cell biology and bioreactor technology for animal and human cell culture and processing.

Elective modules:

Students would be required to take two electives. In any year three to four selected electives will be offered from a longer list of six to eight elective courses to be developed throughout the program. The electives are jointly offered between Portuguese and MIT faculty lecturers and/or a Portuguese lead with MIT faculty providing a few lectures in person or via distance education technology.

E1. Nanobiotechnology (HST faculty, Lino Ferreira (MIT/CNBC) / João Conde)
The learning objective in this class is for students to understand and apply the scientific and technological basis of nanotechnology. Areas of application that will be studied include: micro- and nanofabrication, MEMS and NEMS, microreactors, lab-on-a-chip systems, micro-total-analysis systems, carbon nanotubes, nanowires, AFM atomic and molecular manipulation, molecular motors, biological factories, nanoparticles, nanobiosensors and molecular electronics.

E2. Biomaterials (Paula Hammond / Rui Reis)
This class focuses on materials with special properties: structural materials with optimized mechanical properties, high performance hydrogels, materials responding to external stimuli, and materials with controlled biodegradation. It stresses design for biomedical purposes.

E3. Neuroscience: Molecular to Systems Neurobiology and Brain Diseases (S Tonegawa / A Coutinho)
The proposed format is for two faculty to offer a two-week intense course (one week each) in neuroscience in Portugal (during January – MIT’s between-semester Independent Activities Program). Subfields covered might include molecular and cellular neurobiology; systems neuroscience and brain diseases; and developmental neurobiology.

E4. Human-Robotic Collaboration, Human Factors, and Human Brain Interfaces (Dava Newman, Steve Massaquoi / Higino Correia)
This course introduces students to current research issues in developing hybrid human-machine technologies for biomedical applications. Topics we will cover include human factors for these technologies, wearable biomedical devices, smart prostheses, neuro-compatible machines, and neuro-imaging and detection.

Other Possible Electives include:

EX. Principles and Practice of Drug Development (Tom Allen / Manuel Carrondo)
This module would likely be offered as a distance course from MIT to Portugal. Topics include a description and critical assessments of the major issues and stages of developing a pharmaceutical or bio-pharmaceutical. Other topics include drug discovery, preclinical development, clinical investigation, manufacturing and regulatory issues are considered for small and large molecules; economical and financial considerations of the drug development process; and multidisciplinary perspectives from faculty in clinical, life and management sciences, as well as industrial guests

EX. Strategic Decision Making in the Biomedical Business (Fiona Murray - distance learning possibility)/ PT
This course focuses on key strategic decisions faced by managers, investors and scientists at each stage in the value chain of the life science industry. It aims to develop students' ability to understand and effectively assess these strategic challenges. The focus is on the biotech sector, with additional examples from the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors, including case studies, analytical models and detailed quantitative analysis. It is intended for students interested in building a life science company or working in the sector as a manager, consultant, analyst or investor, and it provides analytical background to the industry for biological and biomedical scientists, engineers and physicians with an interest in understanding the commercial dynamics of the life sciences or the commercial potential of their research.

EX. Functional Genomics and Bioinformatics (MIT BioEngineering?* / Isabel Sá Correia), CSBi, CEnv.Health Unit (CEHS)
New Tools for Genomics, Functional Genomics
The course focuses on contemporary problems in functional genomics and systems biology, providing appropriate methods (in particular, computational tools) to solve them. The underlying biological approach is characterized by large scale molecular profiling of living cells. The principles and methods used for sequence alignment and motif finding could be covered.

EX. Molecular & Cell Therapies and Translational Medicine (HST? / Miguel Prazeres or Paula Alves)Course description under construction.

Second semester

The second semester might best be used for short laboratory introductions and placements, to be chosen by students and advisors according to the student’s professional interests; for conducting advanced studies sequential to lecture courses; and/or for continued participation in innovation teams (i-teams). These are teams of students working with selected technologies and focusing on building a go-to-market strategy for breakthroughs emerging from academic labs. Each team is guided by laboratory principal investigators, other faculty and mentors from the local business community.