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).
Deadline for applications
Fall: May 30 | Winter and Spring: October 30
Academic offerings
1) Elective courses
Winter 2021
This course focuses on a solid dialogue between Neurosciences and Humanities by posing crucial questions on sight and aesthetics. If “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, what is behind the eye of the beholder? Why certain technical breakthroughs are so efficient? Are there inescapable rules of Art? Does biology condition what we can experience as art? Does it condition Art and Music? Can we gather reliable knowledge? Are we prone to believe? Why is Science counterintuitive? What is in our genes and what in our environment? Is the Nature vs. Nurture question a false problem?.
The course attempts to frame the above questions into the current scientific knowledge of the brain. We analyze how sensory systems build up a representation of the world, focusing on vision and audition in connection to painting and music. This leads to a general discussion on the “perceptual rules of art”, aesthetic universals and Beauty. It continues with the question of the foundations of knowledge, the limits of knowledge and the evolutionary roots of belief, linking neurosciences with long lasting obsession in Western philosophy: the grounds of knowledge. Finally, a discussion on the so-called “critical periods” of sensory development and the question of nature and nurture as framed by current biological evidence is carried out as conclusion.
Keywords: Painting, Epistemology, Cognition, Nature/Nurture
Fields: Life Sciences, Anthropology, Psychology, Biology, Music, Philosophy, Art
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.
NEW! Algorithms for sequence analysis in Bioinformatics
Language: English
ECTS: 4
NEW! Aspects of Physical and Organic Chemistry
Language: English
ECTS: 6
NEW! Databases
Language: English
ECTS: 4
Spring 2021
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 Spanish language courses, which are offered for all levels, from beginner to proficiency, including courses for native speakers.