PhD Courses in Denmark

Objectives of the course

The aim of the course is to introduce the students to gastrointestinal ecology (nutrition, immunology, microbiology, host-pathogen interactions, gut-brain axis) and its influence on health and disease in animals, in short ”Gut Biology and Health”.

Learning outcomes and competences

After finalizing the course, the students will be able to:

• Understand and use fundamental terms and notions related to disciplines like nutrition, immunology, and microbiology in relation to gut biology and health.

• Understand challenges related to basic sampling and handling of gastrointestinal material (tissue and digesta) from pigs and potentially other monogastric animals.

• Process and handle pre-generated examples of data from selected laboratory analyses in classical microbiology, molecular microbiology, bioinformatics, and immunology.

• Analyse, evaluate and discuss the data sets, and put the obtained results into an applied context focusing on gastrointestinal health and disease (e.g., dysbiosis) of animals.

Course parameters

Language: English

Level of course: PhD course

Time of year: Summer 2025

No. of contact hours/hours in total incl. preparation, reporting, etc.: 80h/128h

Capacity limit: Approx. 20 participants

Compulsory programme

Active participation in the residential course incl. oral presentation of own field of work (PhD project). A final written report is required for completion of the course.

Course contents

The course will be a 10-day intensive workshop with a series of interactive seminars and theoretical exercises related to aspects of gut biology and health of farm animals, where teaching, and scientific seminars will be given by the organizers as well as by a number of national (DK) and international lecturers.

The course aims at introducing the participants to relevant disciplines (i.e., immunology, nutrition, and microbiology), as well as state-of-the-art analytical methods (e.g., molecular microbiota analysis, flow cytometry and in vitro cell culturing).

The seminars will thus be covering topics within a) gut microbiology; b) gut immunology; c) livestock nutrition (including early life) and health; d) feeding strategies; e) alternatives to antibiotics and zinc); f) animals as models for human studies; g) analytical tools for studying gut microbiology and immunology.

The exercises will introduce e.g., sampling and handling of gut tissue and digesta, selected laboratory analyses, and processing of pre-generated data sets.

Workload

Participants are expected to deliver 128 working hours divided between:

• Pre-course preparation: literature, own presentation (24h).

• Residential course: 8 days in summer 2025, including lectures, exercises, participant presentations and group work (80h).

• Written report after finalizing residential course (24h)

Before arrival at the venue, the participating students are expected to have made themselves familiar with a number of papers, textbook chapters and reviews focusing on gut biology and health; the organizers will provide a literature list. The participants should further prepare a short presentation (approx. 5 min) of their own field of work (PhD project) and put it into the frame of the course syllabus.

At the residential course, the students will process data for writing a report on the exercises and the addressed techniques/methodologies. The report should be submitted for evaluation no longer than 2 weeks after the end of the residential course. The exact curriculum will be adjusted from year to year, based on an updated publication list as well as on suggestions from the invited lecturers.

Prerequisites

This course targets PhD students and post docs within veterinary, production animal, agricultural and health sciences, working with scientific questions related to gut biology and health.

Course organisers

Ole Højberg, Senior Researcher, Dept. Animal and Veterinary Sciences (ANIVET), AU Viborg, e-mail: ole.hojberg@anivet.au.dk

Tina Dalgaard Sørensen, Associate Professor, ANIVET, AU Viborg, e-mail: tina.dalgaard@anivet.au.dk

Charlotte Lauridsen, Professor and Head of ANIVET, AU Viborg, e-mail: charlotte.lauridsen@anivet.au.dk

External key lecturer list (preliminary)

Prof. Mick Bailey, University of Bristol, UK

Prof. Thomas Thymann, University of Copenhagen, DK

Dr. Jordi Estelle, INRAE, Jouy-en-Josas, France

Type of course/teaching methods:

See course content

Literature

Original literature in the form of primary and review papers from international journals and textbooks. A literature list will be made available well in advance of the course.

Course homepage (to be updated)

http://anis.au.dk/uddannelse/gut-biology-and-health/

Course assessment

Participation in residential course as well as an accepted written report

Special comments

Course participants have to pay direct costs for their own travel and accommodation. Rooms will be pre-booked by the organizers at a hostel in the city of Viborg, approx. 15 km from the institute (run by public busses)

Course participants will be charged a fee to cover consumables etc. (to be specified)

A number of the available seats will be allocated to PhD students from the international research project PigParadigm funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. This will strengthen the international aspect of ‘Gut Biology and Health’ and is in line with previous versions of the course, where more than half of the participants have been international PhD students e.g., from partners in the Innovative Training Network (ITN) ‘MonoGutHealth’ funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action and the EU Cost Action F1401 “PiGutNet”.

Time

Summer 2025

Place

The residential course will be held at AU-Viborg, Dept. Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Blichers Allé 20, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark

Registration

Open from 1 February 2025 to 1 April 2025 via e-mail to Emma Bonde Stanek (ebs@anivet.au.dk), including a brief application with title and start year of PhD project, scientific keywords, proposed title of participant presentation, address, and contact information. All applicants will receive information regarding participation no later than 15 April 2025.