During this Apollo open meeting, we will focus on the impact of the microbiome on health and disease. Helen Leavis, immunologist and researcher at the UMC Utrecht, will explain why some bacterias make us ill, while others are necessary to survive. The second part will be about new translational findings about the relationship between the microbioma and neurologic and psychiatric diseases.
Evidence is mounting to underline the differences between men and women in incidence and expression of disease as well as reaction to medicine. Moreover, women are known to use more medication. Nevertheless, most medical research, and hence our knowledge on diseases, is focus on men. Dr Hester den Ruijter conducts research on the differences in cardiovascular health between men and women. In an interactive session, she presented her findings and we discussed potential challenges and solutions to achieve this goal.
For the third time, two of our members gave a lecture on Translational Medicine for Medical Humanities of the CRU medicine bachelor programme.
Concluding our 2017 summer school, we hosted an Apollo day. Professor Berent Prakken, course leader and in member of our Advisory Board got us sharp and thinking about ourselves, by starting off asking us ‘who we are’. After deep thougts, Vicki Seyfert-Margolis from MyOwnMed organised a workshop on how to use data to make create a better healthcare system. Following this, a group of Apollo students is collaborating with her to build an app for students and academics all over the world.
During our studies, and afterwards, we are taught to believe in the concept of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). But how objective is EBM? Can we blindly trust its truths, or is it time to open our eyes?
We hosted an open discussion night where future doctors and/or researchers, learned to approach research more critically, and got new insights on how to improve medical science.
After last year’s successful lecture on viroscience and bioterrorism, this second evening was organised especially for all life science masters & PhD students of the UMC Utrecht, and all those otherwise interested. The focus was on a discussion with an extraordinary researcher. For this occasion, we had invited prof. dr. Grobbee, professor in clinical epidemiology and chairman of the cardiovascular center in the UMCU, to join us in this discussion.
On Tuesday June 21, we hosted our first public get together. Dr. Sander Herfst from Erasmus MC held a lecture followed by an intense discussion on viroscience, government interference and fear of bioterrorism.
We like to thank dr. Herfst and all attendees for their enthusiasm and overwhelmingly active participation. It was a great success!
Two guest lectures of 45 minutes were hosted by two of our founding members. The attendees were 3rd year students of the medicine curriculum following the course Medical Humanities II. Topic of the lectures was Translational Medicine in general, with special attention for the steps it takes to translate from bench to bedside.