Twenty-five years of biomedical sciences in Nijmegen
This year the curriculum of Biomedical Sciences, one of the three curricula offered by UMC St Radboud, will celebrate its silver jubilee. The celebration of this milestone will become a grand event inclusive of a scientific symposium, a scholarship awarded to a very talented student, a party, a reunion and a jubilee book. Sir Alec Jeffreys (University of Leicester), geneticist and the inventor of genetic fingerprinting, will be the principal speaker on the jubilee symposium due to be held on 2 October 2009.
Bridging
The UMC St Radboud offers three curricula:
Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences. The last is the youngest. It dates
back to 1984, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The
curriculum of Biomedical Sciences, curriculum of Health Sciences in former
days, provides in the social need for professionals who are medical experts but
not physicians. The curriculum spans over a period of five years, consisting of
a bachelor phase and a master phase. The curriculum deals with processes going
on in healthy and sick people. This requires a thorough knowledge of the impact
of genes, lifestyle and environment on an individual's state of health. The
Nijmegen BMS students are especially focused on the study of humankind, public
health and the quality of
health care, which gives them a distinctive profile. They bridge the gap
between medical-scientific research and the daily practice of health care.
The curriculum started in 1984. Since then the curriculum has seen more than
1100 graduates, who all have found their ways on the labour market at home and
abroad. They have entered into business or have found jobs at governmental
organizations, educational institutes or research centres.
Lecture Alec Jeffreys
It is also 25 ago when Alec Jeffreys discovered in his Leicester (UK) based lab
that individual pieces of a person's DNA allows one to create a unique genetic
‘fingerprint’. The impact of this discovery has been so great that it is hard
to imagine where we would be without it. Nowadays, this technique is used for
solving crimes, determining kinship and detecting genetic disorders.
