A scientific school on the base of the Erasmus University devoted to inflammatory bowel diseases was held on the basis of the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam, as well as the Erasmus University located in Rotterdam.
This course is organized by the European Federation of Gastroenterology for young professionals working in the field of basic medical research, with the aim of teaching them new methods of modeling & treating inflammatory bowel diseases in an experiment.
The EU Federation’s invited 41 promising scientists from plenty of various countries (Great Britain, Netherlands, Portugal, Malta, Austria etc). Participants of the school are selected on a competitive basis, including all the scientific achievements of the applicant, as well as publications & possible future plans. Only half of the researchers who took part in the contest successfully managed to deal with the qualification selection.
Erasmus medical center
The program of this scientific course in the Netherlands included lectures by the world leading scientists on topical problems of etiopathogenesis, diagnosis & treatment of Crohn’s disease & ulcerative colitis & work in leading laboratories of universities in Amsterdam & Rotterdam. The latter was aimed at assimilating the methodology & acquiring practical skills in growing organoids from mesenchymal stem cells, culturing intestinal fibroblasts, determining the transepithelial electrical resistance of epithelial cells of the intestine & others.
Stem cells of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as circulating hematopoietic & nonhematopoietic stem cells play an extremely important role in the processes of regeneration of the digestive system, as well as carcinogenesis & metastasis processes. The study of the profile of these cells & the invention of methods for controlling their behavior will allow the development of radically new & effective methods for treating a number of serious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, especially cancer.
New knowledge & exclusive practical experience, acquired by the employees of the Institute of Cellular Therapy, as well as stem cell transplantation protocols brought from Europe will soon be introduced into the research work of the Institute.