Genetic Toxicology

The course gives an advanced understanding of genetic toxicology, genetic damages, genotoxic agents, the biological mechanisms that respond to the consequences of genetic damage (cellular metabolism, such as DNA repair and recombination, replication, transcription, cell cycle regulation and cell death). The course provides an introduction to currently used methods in genetic toxicology, and specially methods applied in eco-gentoxicology. During the course the students will achieve knowledge about the newest theory in the field by reading and discussing new scientific papers. Relevant papers in evolutionary toxicology are also discussed. The student has to write about four laboratory reports during the course, either as a co-operation between two students or as individual reports.

Knowledge At the end of the course the candidate will:

• Have advanced knowledge within Genetic toxicology.
• Have gained knowledge on methods used in Genetic Toxicology, and specially methods applied in Eco-gentoxicology.
• Have achieved knowledge about the newest theory in the field by reading and discussing new scientific papers.

Skills At the end of the course the candidate can:

• Independently work on practical and theoretical problems, analyse and deal critically with various sources of information, existing theories, methods and interpretations and use them to structure and formulate scholarly arguments within the area of "Genetic Toxicology".
• Use of a variety of quantitative and qualitative analysis methods, methodology in the field and the application of these to independently analyse and solve problems in "Genetic Toxicology.
• Collect and analyse environmental samples, perform statistical analysis of data, and interpret and present research results using adequate language and terminology.
• Perform in vitro methods where both prokaryote and eukaryote cells are used, with exposure of both single compounds, mixtures of compounds and samples collected in the environment.
• Analyse biological samples collected from wild-life animals for genotoxic effects.
• Explain and discuss scientific papers related to genetic and evolutionary toxicology.
• Make critical and independent assessments of methods and results in "Genetic Toxicology.

General competence At the end of the course the candidate can:

• Handle chemical substances (especially carcinogenic and genotoxic compounds) and biological material in accordance with Environment Health and Safety (EHS) and evaluate environmental consequences of their use.
• Generate experimental data and analyse those using statistical methods.
• Writing scientific reports using their own generated data, interpreting and discussing their data up to current scientific literature.
• Carry out and solve advanced tasks and projects, both independently and in teams, and to assess her/his own contribution to projects and how to continuously develop his/her professional competence.
• Follow global developments relevant to her/his own scientific field, not only with the discipline, but including societal changes.
• Communicate subject matter and scientific results both to specialists and to a wider audience and be able to formulate scientific reasoning/argumentation.
• Contribute to new thinking and innovation processes in the field of Genetic Toxicology.

Lectures: 10 hours Seminar/Lab: 36 hours, mandatory Intensively taught