Human Embryology & Developmental Biology 

• 26 hrs lecture
• 10 hrs group project work without guidance
• 20 hrs laboratory course
• 14 hrs question session
• 92 hrs individual study period

Basic knowledge on Descriptive Embryology is needed. In the beginning of the course suggestions will be given how to enhance this knowledge. The student has to acquire this knowledge independently and under his/her own responsibility.

The early development and the fetus-mother relationship will be handled during the lectures while the organogenesis will be studies using study-assignments.

On the basis of the educational curriculum during the lectures students should be able to:

a)      give a description of the different early embryonic developmental stadia, the process of implantation, the meaning of the three germ-layers and the folding events.

b)      to set a timing in the consecutive embryonic and fetal developmental stages.

c)       to indicate how embryonic appendices will be formed and functions they have.

During the study assignments  about the organogenesis the students will be enabled to, in his or her own pace, study the differentiation of the nervous system, the cardio-vascular system, digestive system and the urogenital system using an elaborate assignment book and microscopical slides of mouse embryos.

The development of a fertilized ovum to a multicellular organism is a remarkable triumph of the evolution. During the embryonic development one cell will divide to millions of cells that together will form complex organ systems. In the last century, the descriptive embryology has given us an overview of the formational changes that an organism needs to go through from its existence till its adulthood. In this century, the human embryology encounters an exciting new era as molecular underpinnings of developmental processes are getting more and more clear.

This course initially deals with normal human development. The lectures will discuss the early embryonic development, the fetus-mother relationship and the molecular-physiological mechanisms that drive the development of an embryo. The organogenesis will be studied by assignments in which microscopical slides and illustrations are central. In the teratological part of the course disorders are discussed that can appear during embryonic and fetal development. The demonstrations will be held in the Pathological Museum of the UMC St Radboud, where specimens of human embryos can be studied that have a certain form of misdevelopment. This course is mainly exploratory in terms of biological and clinical data that are interesting for students that follow medical oriented biological courses during the specialization part of the curriculum.

Tentaminering vindt plaats door een schriftelijk tentamen gebaseerd op de onderwerpen die in de hoorcolleges, de responsiecolleges en de practica worden behandeld over de onderdelen Humane Embryologie en Teratologie (welk voor 25% meetelt).

Written exam based on the topics dealt with in the lectures, and the interactive lecture (75% of final mark) and the laboratory course concerning the  topics Human Embryology and Teratology (25% of final mark).