Knowledge of the molecular physiology of cells and the physiology of organs on a systems level provides a fundamental basis for our understanding of the healthy body as well as disease-related mechanisms. Students will learn about a range of cellular functions, the roles of subcellular compartments, ranging from the nucleus to intracellular membrane compartments, plasma membrane and extracellular matrix, as well as dynamic molecular mechanisms like intracellular trafficking processes. Taking general cell biology to the organ systems level, this module will develop knowledge about the specialised functions of cells in specific human tissues and how the body regulates the various organ functions through communication pathways in a systemic way to achieve homeostasis. You will encounter various examples, including the digestive, renal, respiratory and neuroendocrine organs among others. Furthermore, you will be learning about a number of techniques and methods that are used to study the molecular biology of cells and the systems physiology of the body, including imaging techniques.
The module is taught through lectures and workshops, which are supported through directed reading/ multimedia.
There are two assessment in this module. The first assessment is a midterm assessment (40%) comprising a mixture of Multiple answer, multiple choice and extended matching item questions. The second assessment consists of two parts: Section 1 – assessing cellular and systems physiology concepts (30%) and Section 2 – Data interpretation and understanding (30%)