Molecular Pharmacology
Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences at University of Copenhagen
This is a specialised course. This means that 80% of the seats are reserved to PhD students enrolled at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at UCPH and 20% of the seats are reserved to PhD students from other Danish Universities/faculties (except CBS).
The course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School), and for PhD Students from NorDoc member faculties. All other participants must pay the course fee.
Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at a Danish university, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. This also applies to PhD students from NorDoc member faculties. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to applicants on the waiting list.
Learning objectives
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:
1. Understand the principles and practical conditions underlying commonly used molecular pharmacological assays
2. Design and perform molecular pharmacological experiments using state-of-the-art methods
3. Analyze pharmacological data using the program GraphPad Prism
Content
Modern molecular pharmacology is characterized by the use of a broad variety of techniques in studies of receptor structure, function and pharmacology. In recent years increased focus has been on the use of fluorescent techniques to study signal transduction, activation mechanisms and trafficking. Another topic of current interest is the use of the increasing number of 3D structures and reliable models of receptors and transporters available to guide molecular pharmacological experiments, which have increased our understanding of the molecular basis for subtype selectivity, receptor activation and downstream signaling.
These topics will be covered during the course by lectures, practical exercises and workshops.
The lectures will cover:
• State of the art molecular pharmacological assays
• Theoretical background for the practical exercises
The practical exercises will cover:
• Expression profiling and pharmacological characterization of G protein-coupled receptors and ligand-gated ion channels using e.g.:
- measurements of intracellular Ca2+ levels and membrane potential by fluorescence probes
- measurement of intracellular cAMP using time-resolved FRET and a FRET-based biosensor
- measurement of G-protein activation by a BRET assay
- measurement of receptor internalization by a SNAP-tag and FRET
- measurement of receptor signaling by an ERK assay
- radioligand binding to receptors
- electrophysiological recordings in Xenopus oocytes using two-electrode voltage clamp
- high throughput electrophysiological recordings using the automated patch-clamp equipment Syncropatch384
- Quantitative evaluation of receptor mRNA expression by qPCR
The workshop will cover:
• Use of GraphPad Prism software to evaluate pharmacological data
Participants
This course is for the PhD students doing a project or with interest in molecular pharmacology, i.e. in vitro based pharmacology on recombinantly expressed targets in cells or as pure proteins. We have made the course in a way so that it enables PhD students wide eclectic backgrounds to take the course and benefit from it.
Relevance to graduate programmes
The course is relevant to PhD students from the following graduate programmes at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH:
Neuroscience
Basic Metabolic Research
Molecular Mechanisms of Disease
Language
English
Form
Five days of lectures and lab exercises (see enclosed timeline schedule)
• 11 lectures
• 21 hours doing experiments (including lunch the five days)
• 3 hours analysis data and begin the report writing (Friday).
The students will work at the exercises in groups of 2-3 and they will write up a report (10-pages) over their experiments that will be sent in for commenting 1 month after the course, and this (and active participation in the course forms the evaluation criteria for the course).
Course director
Anders A. Jensen, Professor, University of Copenhagen, aaj@sund.ku.dk
Teachers
Anders A. Jensen, Professor, University of Copenhagen
Jesper M. Mathiesen, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
Petrine Wellendorph, Professor, University of Copenhagen
Anders Bue Klein, PhD, Ousia Pharma (ekstern underviser)
Olav Larsen, Post doc, University of Copenhagen
Katrine Schultz-Knudsen, Post doc, University of Copenhagen
Stine Juul Gauger, Post doc, University of Copenhagen
Janina Söermann, Post doc, University of Copenhagen
Michelle Nielsen, PhD student, University of Copenhagen
(additional post docs/Phd students may be added to some of the exercises, but this core of teachers will be able to run the course)
Dates
26-30 April 2027, all five days of the week. The exact time of the course may be changed, but the course WILL be in end of April/start of May 2027
Course location
University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 2, DK-2100 Copenhagen
Registration
Please register before 15 March 2027
Expected frequency
Once a year
Seats to PhD students from other Danish universities will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules. Applications from other participants will be considered after the last day of enrolment.