Teaching

Teaching statement by Henriette Schluepmann.  "I strive for an inclusive learning experience, motivated by the respect and affection for each other, as well as for all that we do not know. The experience requires that we communicate, transgressing the wealth of diversity from personalities and backgrounds we represent. Knowledge and experience go hand in hand, I strive to combine theory with practicals, and research with teaching. Neither suffice without creativity and curiosity. Learning will not last without humor and enjoyment. Learning is never one-way; my method is, therefore, inherently anti-authoritarian."

Courses previously taught by members of the Azolla HS Lab

Bachelor level

Metabolism (B-B2META09) This 10-week course contains an introduction to biochemistry required to understand metabolism, then illustrates key concepts in metabolism using primary metabolic pathways as guiding examples. Frequency: once yearly in Period 2. Text Book: Stryer et al. Biochemistry. The course is taught by Dr. L.A. van Meeteren and Dr. H. Schluepmann. 

Biology of the bio-based economy (B-B3BMBC13 ) This ten-week course challenges students to think along for the development of novel biology research lines feeding into the needs of a bio-based economy. Students gather proof-of-concept evidence in wet and or dry labs, then write a research proposal. The course subjects are divided into biomass production and biomass conversion. Frequency: once yearly in Period 4. The course is taught by Dr. H. Schluepmann and Dr. ir. R.P. de Vries.

Tutoraat consists of a Bachelor (three-year) -long tutoring of a group of 20-30 freshmen including formal teaching but also informal activities and counseling. Dr. H. Schluepmann.

Masters level:

Introduction to Bioinformatics for Life Sciences (B-MINBI19 ) This 5-week course aims to introduce masters students from the Graduate School of Life Sciences into the following 

1.  Next Generation (genome) sequencing,

2.  Genome variation and its relevance for disease,

3.  The interdependence between protein sequence, structure and function,

4.  Bioinformatic analyses of RNA sequencing data,

5.  Bioinformatic analyses of protein mass-spectrometry data,

6.  Data integration of protein interaction networks. 

The course is taught by L.W. Dijkhuizen MSc, Dr. A.S.J. Melquiond, Prof. dr. B. Snel, Dr. ir. B. van Breukelen. 

We furthermore host Major, Minor and Thesis writing Internships from the Utrecht University Biology curriculum tracks*: Bio-Inspired Innovation,  Environmental Biology, Science and Business Management and Bioinformatics. All of our internships include training in wetlab and bioinformatics. Wet lab includes, analyses of plant growth and development in isolation and in a mesocosm, tissue culture and preparation, biochemistry, cloning using the goldengate system for synthetic biology with differing (model) plants, and filamentous cyanobacteria, histology and imaging involving use of fluorescence binocular or microscope and confocal microscopy, stable and transient transformation techniques, genome editing approaches...and anything else that you deem necessary to investigate our favorite fern symbiosis Azolla. In bioinformatics, we offer training on research leads in metagenome sequencing, assemblies and annotation, analysis of dual RNAsequencing data, and small RNA sequencing data including miRNA discovery.

 We often reach full capacity with five-six Masters Major Internships per year; most of the supervision is by Dr. H. Schluepmann, but both L.W. Dijhuizen and E. Güngör have helped with daily supervision.

*If you are a student from another department or institution and wish to join for sheer motivation, or because of your complementing skills, you would be most welcome, please, contact Henriette Schluepmann, tel. +31 (0)30 2533289 or h.schlupmann@uu.nl.