International winter school „Molecular Biology in Animal Sciences“ took place on November 13th -17th 2017 in Tartu, Estonia. The main organizers of the winter school were Graduate School in Biomedicine and Biotechnology and Doctoral School of Clinical Medicine through Estonian University of Life Sciences ASTRA programme „Value-chain based bio-economy“, Transgeno ERA Chair project team from the University of Tartu and SEARMET project from the Estonian University of Life Sciences.

The first three days of the programme took place in the Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu and in the National Centre for Translational and Clinical Research. The programme on 16th and 17th of November took place in the Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences.

The winter school introduced participants to different methods for studying animal models at the molecular level, especially as it pertains to reproduction. Lectures included opportunities to gain hands-on-experience in using state of the art equipment such as CRISPR/Cas9 genomic and epigenomic editing and Affymetrix microarray equipment. Participants were also given guidance on how to process and interpret the data generated from many of these methods and how they can be translated between subdisciplines.

In total there were 17 participants who passed the intensive PhD course. In addition to Estonian PhD students, there were also students from Poland, Finland and Vietnam. The lecturers of the winter school were from the partner universities of Transgeno ERA Chair and SEARMET projects such as University of Tartu and University of Copenhagen from Denmark. Scientists from the University of Teramo from Italy, and Tallinn University of Technology gave also their contribution.

Programme and additional information about the speakers is available here.

Organizers: Graduate School in Biomedicine and Biotechnology and Doctoral School of Clinical Medicine through Estonian University of Life Sciences ASTRA programme,  H2020 project "Scientific Excellence in Animal Reproductive Medicine and Embryo Technology" (SEARMET, No 692299) and H2020 project „The ERA Chair for Translational Genomics and Personalized Medicine“ (Transgeno, Nr 668989).

Additional information: Prof. Ülle Jaakma, Ylle.Jaakma@emu.ee

SEARMET project assistant Hemminki Otstavel, hemminki.otstavel@emu.ee

Slides are available here.