This program may be of interest to any student who is majoring in health sciences, medicine, biology, veterinary science, nursing, or any other health-related field and/or who is planning to apply to medical school after graduation. In today's globalized world, more and more students seek to include international experience in their studies. This can be achieved by working alongside faculty and students from UPF's prestigious Health and Life Sciences School.
Key Areas
- Anatomy and Embryology
- Biochemistry
- Cellular Biology
- Comparative Healthcare Systems
- Nutrition and Food SciencePhysiology
- Pathology
- Psychology
- Public Health
(!) All the Health-related direct enrollment courses will take place at Ciutadella Campus Mar which is about a ten-minute walk from the Ciutadella Campus (where HESP and Spanish language courses take place). Please, be aware of this when configurating your class schedules.
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Program Requirements
- Applicants should have a minimum GPA of 3.0 at their school of origin.
- The program is suitable for both students with a strong command of Spanish and intermediate speakers.
- Students with a strong command of Spanish may participate in observation activities, as long as their language and other skills enable efficient communication with others in the experiential-learning setting.
- Students with any level of Spanish may participate in the experiential-learning activities in laboratories.
- Applicants should come from a university or study-abroad provider with a study-abroad agreement with UPF.
Academic Structure
The progam requires a full semester course load (normally 4-5 courses, equivalent to 24-30 ECTS credits). The course load is built from the following components:
1. A minimum of 2-3 courses from a selection of regular courses at the UPF School of Health and Life Sciences. The selected courses belong to various degree programs offered at UPF in the fields of biology, biotechnology, bioinformatics, health, and medical science. These are direct enrollment courses taught in English or Spanish and the list of selected elective courses can be found below.
2. An optional undergraduate research abroad project directed by UPF Faculty (6 ECTS)
3. Optional electives from the Hispanic and European Studies Program (including Spanish Language courses).
Deadline for applications
Fall: May 30 | Winter and Spring: October 30
Academic offerings
1) Elective courses
Fall 2019
Developing a new drug for a disease or clinical condition is a complex process. In this course we aim to provide the student with an overview ranging from the early stages of the drug discovery to the final product that can be taken to the drug market.
The teaching project addresses fundamental aspects related with biological elements, at different scales levels (molecules, genes and cells) from an engineering point of view. How to modify natural systems to create synthetic devices is at the core of this course. The students must be able to manage theoretical/computational (dry lab), and experimental (wet lab) tools in order to design and create these new synthetic devices. The main goal of the course is to teach the students in a way that they are able to understand the concepts more than memorize details. It should strengthen their critical thinking and enable them to integrate these concepts with others from different scientific disciplines.
22280 - Introduction to Medical Devices and their Design
Language: English
ECTS: 5
The main goal of the IMDD subject is to present the relevant aspects of the medical device pipeline, from having an idea to commercialize a product, in a variety of clinical applications, including cardiovascular and neurology pathologies. The organization of the IMDD subject will put students in direct contact with healthcare professionals working in this sector, improving their knowledge on possible career opportunities.
NEW! - Genética clínica
Language: Spanish
ECTS: 4
Download syllabus (TBA)
La genética es un componente de virtualmente todas las áreas de la biología, está en fase de crecimiento rápido, y presenta numerosas implicaciones y aplicaciones. En medicina, la genética es la base para entender la herencia de determinadas enfermedades, para proporcionar consejo a las familias, y para desarrollar la investigación científica encaminada a entender los mecanismos moleculares de las enfermedades que permitan desarrollar nuevos métodos diagnósticos y abordajes terapéuticos. La industria biotecnológica está creciendo muy rápidamente mediante utensilios genéticos para desarrollar productos farmacéuticos o diagnósticos, entre otros. La genética se aplica también de manera rutinaria a fines forenses, en la identificación de individuos o para determinar minúsculas contaminaciones de organismos.
Las variaciones genéticas individuales son responsables de la variabilidad molecular y bioquímica de los individuos. Esta variabilidad se debe en parte a la composición variable de la secuencia del ADN y a sus modificaciones químicas. Las mutaciones contribuyen a dicha variabilidad, pero no todas las mutaciones poseen significado biológico. Algunas pueden ser deletéreas, otras neutras y algunas pueden conferir ventajas evolutivas. Sin variación y sin mutaciones no habría diversidad y consecuentemente no habría evolución. El fenotipo variable en los seres humanos es el resultado de la interacción entre los genes y el medio ambiente, lo que varía en cantidad y a lo largo del tiempo. Las variaciones tienen una expresión molecular en la secuencia, estructura y función de proteínas y ácidos nucleicos reguladores. También son responsables de la enfermedad, la cual desde este punto de vista supone un desequilibrio en la relación homeostática normal entre el genoma y el medio ambiente.
Este curso pretende ser una oportunidad para el encuentro de los estudiantes con el área de la genética, centralizándose en su aplicación al estudio de la fisiología y de la patología humana. Como ocurre en la práctica profesional, la asignatura estará integrada y coordinada con áreas relacionadas. La genética y el estudio del genoma son fundamentales para definir unas bases científicas sólidas en los profesionales de la salud.
Winter 2020
51632 - Neurosciences and the Humanities: Brain, Philosophy and Art
Language: English
ECTS: 6
How reliable is our perception of the world? What is consciousness? Is free will an illusion? Does beauty reside in our brain? Neurosciences study the brain, from genes and cells to behavior and, during the last years, the scientific study of the brain has provided radical new clues about how the brain works. This knowledge has strong implications for many areas of human activity outside the conventional environment of medicine or psychology, and expands to economics, laws, philosophy or art. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the dialogue between neurosciences and humanities, thereby breaking the classical gap between CP Snows' "Two Cultures". The intersecting topics range from philosophical and ethical issues, such as free will, the grounds of knowledge, or economic behavior, to questions related to art and culture.
With this course the student acquire practical and theoretical knowledge about the structure of proteins and other biomacromolecules as well as the methods used for their characterization. The course includes: The introduction to the biophysics of molecular systems. The structural principles of biopolymers: proteins and DNA. The three-dimensional structure determination of biomolecules. The structure / function relationships of proteins. Molecular simulation of proteins and DNA.
Biostatistics and Data Analysis provides an introduction to selected important topics in biostatistical concepts and reasoning. This course represents an introduction to the field and provides a survey of data and data types.
Specific topics include tools for describing central tendency and variability in data; methods for performing inference on population means and statistical hypothesis testing; issues of power and sample size in study designs. The course will familiarize the students with the use of the R statistical package and give them the skills needed for effective data management, data manipulation, and data analysis at a basic level.
La asignatura Anatomía Humana es una materia obligatoria de segundo curso de los grados en Biología (Código 20337) y Medicina (Código 20402) que consta de 7 créditos ECTS y que se imparte durante el segundo trimestre. La docencia se realiza en castellano y catalán.
Coordinación y profesorado
El profesor responsable de la asignatura es José A. Pereira Rodríguez. Colaboran en la docencia de seminarios y prácticas: Alex Merí Vived, Alejandro Bravo Salvá, Nuria Argudo Aguirre, Eduard Permanyer, Eulogio Pleguezuelos Cobo y Clara Pañella Vilamu. Las prácticas de Anatomía Radiológica son supervisadas por: Angel Gayete Cara, Juan Sánchez Parrilla, Marcos Busto y Jaume Capellades Font.
por las autoridades educativas, y previstas en los planes de estudio de las correspondientes titulaciones que, en resumen,
son las siguientes:
-Conocer la estructura y función del sistema inmunitario. Capacidad de describir los principales componentes
celulares y moleculares que participan en los diferentes procesos de la respuesta inmunitaria en los mamíferos, y
particularmente en la especie humana.
-Conocer los principios generales que rigen la interacción entre el sistema inmunitario con los patógenos
microbianos, trasplantes y tumores.
2 de 5
-Conocer los principios de la fisiopatología de los principales tipos de alteraciones del sistema inmunitario, así como
de las correspondientes aproximaciones diagnósticas y terapéuticas.
-Aprender los fundamentos de las diferentes aplicaciones analíticas de la reacción antígeno-anticuerpo y el uso de
las técnicas básicas del laboratorio de inmunología.
1. Introduce the student into the world of Molecular Biology, to understand the transfer of genetic information from nucleic acid till protein synthesis and cell function.
2. Help the student to know the general structure, organization and function of eukaryotic cells. We aim to transmit the student how morphology, structure and function are connected.
3. Teach to student the bases of basic research in molecular and cellular
biology, and help them reaching the correct conclusions from their experimental results.
This is an introductory course and basic information on molecular and cellular mechanisms will be given to provide students with basis to comprehend specialized courses of bioinformatics curricula.
Spring 2020
understand the complexities of the cells, tissues, and major organs and systems of the human body. The aim of this course is to acquire a basic understanding of the physiological mechanisms that allow for the running of each major organ systems. Topics include basic immunity, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, endocrine, reproduction and nervous system characteristics and functions.
the correct interpretation of the results generated by these programs.
-Introduce the student to the main principles of Genetics
-Understand the different models of genetic inheritance.
-Help the student to understand the principles of linkage and chromosome
mapping.
-Teach the mechanisms of chromosome and genome variation.
-Provide students with information on gene interactions, inheritance of complex traits and association mapping.
-This introductory course will provide students with the basis to understand more specialized courses of bioinformatics curricula.
2) Undergraduate Research Abroad Projects (6 ECTS)
(Available during 2nd and 3rd terms)
Besides meeting the general Global Health Program admission requirements, students intersted in the Research Labs must be students of Biomedical related majors.The Research Projects can last for a period of 6 months (January-June/July) or 10 months (September/June).
Check the research groups which are available to consider your proposal.
3) Optional Electives from the Hispanic and European Studies Program (including Spanish Language Courses)
(Available during 1st and 2nd terms)
Students may round out their course registration with Hispanic and European Studies Courses (including Spanish language courses, which are offered for all levels, from beginner to proficiency, including courses for native speakers).