Student blogs

I can’t believe a full year has gone by since I started the Translational Physiology and Pharmacology (TPP) master’s programme at KI! It seems like just yesterday I was packing up my suitcase and getting on a one-way flight to Stockholm. But it is indeed a year later, and it’s about time for a year one programme recap. 

Semester 1 started out with the course, Integrated Physiology and Pharmacology. This course was 25 credits, and lasted from week 1-20. It covered all the basics of pharmacology and physiology, and basically brought everyone up to speed (so no matter what background we had, pharmacy, chemistry or biomedical sciences, we could start out the program with a similar foundation to everyone else). The first two consisted of basic lectures on each organ system of the body, lectures on Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics and an exam. The rest of the course consisted of a lot of group work, journal clubs and more specific physiology and pharmacology topics (such as adaptation to exercise, pregnancy, endocrine pharmacology, aging and many more). I quite enjoyed this course, as we got to cover so many different areas of physiology and pharmacology. The final assessments consisted of individual written assignments and a group individual assignment. 

After that physiology and pharmacology-heavy course, we shifted towards a course on leadership, ethics, entrepreneurship and teamwork, Professional development and ethics. It was 5 credits and lasted from week 16-20. This course had a few online classes as it coincided with the winter holidays, however, KI does not formally give a winter break, so after New Year’s, the course continued in person. In this course, we also worked in groups and had a final assessment in which we had to develop a product (as a group) keeping to the themes we had just learned about. 

After Sweden’s gloomy winter had passed, and the days were finally becoming longer again, it was time for the start of the new semester. Semester 2 began with Bioinformatics from a physiological and pharmacological perspective, a 7.5 credits course that lasted from week 1-5. The course consisted of morning lectures and afternoon practicals, where we would apply what we had learned the morning or day before. We covered models for pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, high throughput screening, pharmacogenomics, homology modeling and docking calculations. This was my first time covering any sort of bioinformatic topic, so it was a difficult course, however, I thought the lecturers did a good job at explaining at a beginner level. The course ended with a written examination. 

A course on Physiological and pharmacological mechanisms and experimental approaches quickly followed. This one was 15 credits and lasted from week 6-15. I really enjoyed this course because I learned a lot about methods used in the field, which I had not covered in depth beforehand. It helped me better understand papers — I actually felt like I knew what was going on when I was reading them. We also had journal clubs during this course, where we sat down in small groups with a professor and read papers, analyzed them and looked at their strengths and limitations. 

Finally, we ended the first year with a course on Project work in translational physiology and pharmacology, which was 7.5 credits, and lasted from week 16-20. Across two weeks, we had lectures in the morning on eight main topics, Neuroscience, Gut Microbiota, Bone, Cardiovascular, Lung, Skeletal muscle, Kidney and Eye, and online journal clubs in the afternoon. Afterwards, we had two labs, in which we learned basic lab procedures including PCR, gel electrophoresis and producing aspirin. These were very fun, and at the end we wrote lab reports with our lab group, and had two final individual written assignments. 

Overall, I learned a lot this first year of my TPP program! There were ups and downs, as with anything, but the year definitely ended on a positive note. I’m excited to start year 2 and see what the next courses have in store!