Online courses for Ukrainian students of biological disciplines

Online courses for Ukrainian students of biological disciplines

The war interrupted studies in many Ukrainian universities. Many students and teachers were forced to leave their cities, as a result of which some courses were not taught at a sufficient level or were not taught at all.

Our project aims to support biology students that continue the education in Ukraine despite the war by providing free interactive online courses covering the areas of life sciences and data literacy in their language. The project was developed at the initiative of Professor Olga Garaschuk, Director of the Institute of Physiology of the University of Tübingen (Germany), and combines efforts of 20 teachers from 10 Ukrainian, 3 German, and 2 other European Universities.  10 partner Ukrainian universities agreed to recognize the project online courses as part of their curriculums. The general coordination of the study programs is provided by Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University.

The project is financed by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). About 250 students from families strongly affected by the war will by supported with scholarships this year.

Courses planned for 2024:

This set of courses is the development and continuation of the courses taught in 2022 and 2023 that were attended in total by about 450 students from 40 Ukrainian universities.

 

News

Start of registration for spring 2024 courses

We are pleased to announce that the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has awarded our team a grant to organize online courses for Ukrainian students of biological specialties for the third time.

In 2024, we will organize 6 free interactive online courses for students of biology and related specialties, which will be taught by leading experts from Ukrainian universities.

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Online courses start in September-October 2023

In September-October 2023, the online courses Life Sciences, Microbes, Viruses and Infections, Bioinformatics, and Mathematical Statistics for Biologists were launched as part of a project to support Ukrainian biology students.

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Registration for the course "Mathematical statistics for biologists"

We opened registration for the course «Mathematical statistics for biologists», which will begin on October 10, 2023.

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Registration for the course "Microbes, viruses & infections"

We opened registration for the course «Microbes, viruses & infections», which will begin on October 2, 2023.

Course objective:

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Start of registration for the "Bioinformatics" course

We open registration for the second of the online courses to be taught in 2023, "Bioinformatics", that will start on October 2, 2023.

The course is organized on the basis of the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and Explogen LLC and is a great opportunity to learn a lot of new and interesting things from experts working in this field.

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Our Courses
23.09.2024

Is interactive online course on clinic-oriented human genetics and bioinformatic analyses in studying hereditary. Will cover, among others, the following topics: methods of medical genetics, general inheritance laws, genetic testing in medicine, clinical databases, Next Generation Sequencing, Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) analyses.

The course duration is 30 h (24 h lectures and 6 h seminars).

Estimated attendance: about 40 students separated for interactive practicals in groups of 20. 

All classes will be given in Ukrainian.

Scholarship: 20 scholarships of 200 euros. For students from families affected by the war. Funding conditions require successful completion of the course. 

Registration: to September 6, 2024

After the end of registration, everyone who sent an application will receive a letter to their e-mail with a notification about registration/rejection.

09.09.2024

This is an integrated course that consists of three blocks: microbiology, virology and immunology. Each block contains lectures, seminars and expected time for off-class study. The total duration of each block will be detailed in the course certificates.

Off-class study includes preparation for seminars, individual practical assignments, which students will present at seminars as well as preparation for intermediate and final examinations.

All lectures and seminars of this course are 2 h. For seminars, students will be divided into 3 groups.

All classes will be given in Ukrainian.

Scholarship: 30 scholarships of 400 euros. For students from families affected by the war. Funding conditions require successful completion of the course. 

Registration: to Septemper 2, 2024

After the end of registration, everyone who sent an application will receive a letter to their e-mail with a notification about registration/rejection.

01.07.2024

This course covers modern methods for visualizing, studying the structure and interactions of biological molecules. Its main goal is to tell students about the possibilities and limitations of each of the most popular methods and explain how to choose the simplest and most effective approach to answer a specific experimental question.

The course consists of several blocks, which will be taught by experts in their respective fields: Fluorescence spectroscopy (Vasyl Pyvovarenko, KNU); Fluorescence microscopy (Yuriy Kovalchuk, University of Tübingen; Petro Khoroshyy, IOCB Prague); Electron microscopy (Nina Bondarenko, Hanover Medical School/DNU); LC-MS and basics of proteomics (Oleg Lushchak, PNU/LMS London); other methods of structure determination (Volodymyr Shvadchak, PNU).

Practical work will cover the workflow of processing real experimental data sets from fluorescence and CD experiments, planning chromatographic experiments, in-depth work with fluorescence microscopy images using ImageJ.

The course consists of 26 lectures and 14 seminars/practical classes. Lectures and seminars of this course will last one and a half hours each. For seminars, students will be divided into 2 groups.

All classes will be given in Ukrainian.

Scholarship: 25 scholarships of 400 euros. For students from families affected by the war. Funding conditions require successful completion of the course. 

Registration: to June 23, 2024

After the end of registration, everyone who sent an application will receive a letter to their e-mail with a notification about registration/rejection.

25.09.2024

This course is designed for bachelor biology students and will allow them to understand the complex physiological mechanisms, underlying human mental activity. Students will learn which brain areas are important for memory, reasoning, attention and motivation, and how they interact with each other to generate complex behavior. The program also addresses the impact of emotions, stress, and other factors on brain function and human behavior. An essential part of the course is the analysis of the body's adaptive mechanisms, including the stress reaction and adaptation to changes in the internal and external environment. Besides, course participants will learn to monitor mental health, including examination of various mental states and their impact on the function of the nervous system.

The duration of the course from 25.09.2024, 48 hours (2 ECTS credits). Classes (lectures and seminars) will be held online: 

Scholarship: 50 scholarships of 200 euros for students from families affected by the war.

Registration to September 16, 2024

16.09.2024

The course comprises lectures and hands-on sessions devoted to the basic methods of statistical analysis and data presentation used by biologists. It will teach how to correctly calculate confidence intervals for values; build and use calibration curves; compare sample means; conduct statistical testing and account for multiple comparisons; do analysis of variance (ANOVA); select which test to use for analysis; do no-linear regression analysis; present data in clear and straightforward manner. All the discussed statistical tests are broadly used in scientific publications in the field of life sciences. The course also contains a chapter related to the design of experiments and the rules for creating graphs for journal articles.

For seminars, students will be divided into 2 groups.

All classes will be given in Ukrainian.

Scholarship: 25 scholarships of 200 euros. For students from families affected by the war. Funding conditions require successful completion of the course. 

Registration: to Septemper 9, 2024

After the end of registration, everyone who sent an application will receive a letter to their e-mail with a notification about registration/rejection.

01.08.2024

This comprehensive, hands-on course provides training on the bioinformatics of gene expression analysis, focusing on bulk RNA-sequencing data using R, R Studio, and various R packages. Additionally, the course introduces foundational concepts of single-cell RNA-seq analysis. All instructors are practicing bioinformaticians and lecturers at training courses of NGO Genomics UA. Each session includes an introductory lecture followed by a practical tutorial. During tutorials, students will engage live in data analysis under the guidance of an instructor and participate in interactive assessments.

The course begins with an R boot camp to introduce newcomers to the R programming language and R Studio, while also serving as a refresher for those already familiar with R. Next, the basics of expression analysis, advanced R techniques, differential expression analysis using DESeq2, data visualization, functional analysis, and single-cell expression analysis are discussed. A final assessment in the form of multiple-choice questions will conclude the course, requiring a minimum pass rate of 70% on each test for successful completion. Besides, the course features a team project where groups of 2-3 students analyze expression data from a publicly available dataset, starting from a count matrix. Two final sessions focus on student presentations and feedback from the instructors. These mini-projects are not graded but successful teams will receive additional certificates from NGO Genomics UA, signed by the instructors.

All instruction will be delivered in Ukrainian, but as the bioinformatics packages are documented in English and the field uses established English terminology, the necessary background will be provided in each session.

The course consists of 30 classes.  For classes, students will be divided into 2 groups.

All classes will be given in Ukrainian.

Scholarship: 25 scholarships of 200 euros. For students from families affected by the war. Funding conditions require successful completion of the course. 

Registration: to July 23, 2024

After the end of registration, everyone who sent an application will receive a letter to their e-mail with a notification about registration/rejection.

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