What is
MorphoPHEN?
Human Diseases Models Morphological Phenotyping (MorphoPHEN) consists of an integrated and interdisciplinary Erasmus Mundus Joint Master. It is conceived to alleviate the real shortage of experts in morphological mouse phenotyping, which is needed to generate a positive impact of preclinical biomedicine and improve human translatability (from the bench to the bedside).
MorphoPHEN
Program
MorphoPHEN is a one-year Erasmus Mundus Joint Master (60 ECTS), divided in two semesters of 30 ECTS each. It brings knowledge on the four main branches necessary to analyze mouse disease models morphologically: Anatomy and Embryology, Pathology, Imaging, and Deep Learning.
Module 1.
Mouse Anatomy and Pathobiology
- Mouse status in biomedicine
- Standardized nomenclature for mice
- Anatomical and histological methods
- Mouse embryology and placenta
- Gross anatomy and topography in mouse
- Histology of mouse organs
- Ultrastructure of mouse tissues
- Ontological approach to mouse morphology
- Introduction to general mouse pathology
- Mouse necropsy Pathology of the major organ systems
- Optional language course (Spanish, Catalan)
Module 2.
Mouse Imaging
- Anatomical bases of mouse imaging
- Mouse handling, care, and anesthesia
- Imaging using ionizing radiation (X-ray, CT, SPECT, PET)
- Imaging using non-ionizing radiation (MRI, FMT, NIR, HFUS, PAI)
- Hybrid imaging (PET/CT, PET/MR, US/PAI)
- Imaging contrast agents
Applications: cell trafficking and cell tissue homing, angiogenesis, hypoxia, apoptosis and inflammation - Optional language course (Italian)
Module 3.
Deep learning and experimental design
- Introduction to deep and machine learning
- Classifiers and metrics for evaluation
- Supervised and unsupervised algorithms
- Convolutional neural and recurrent networks
- Methodologies for 1D and 2D signals: sliding windows, super-pixels, streaming data and whole pictures transformation
- Methodologies for conducting deep learning experiments
- Experimental design with mice: quantitative comparison, ARRIVE and 3Rs
- Optional language course (Greek)
Module 4.
Master’s Degree Dissertation
10 ECTS
- Short research project on anatomy, pathology, imaging and deep learning applied to the phenotyping of mouse disease models
Lecturers
& Partners
In addition to the MorphoPHEN partner universities, the affiliated entity CEINGE-Biotecnologie Avanzate and many associated partners embedded in the biomedicine sector, including other universities, research institutions and companies have come together to produce an educational program to teach mouse morphological phenotyping.