In this activity, students will be learning about medicines for common symptoms of illness. Students will discuss different sicknesses as well as different cure-alls, both medicinal and home remedies.

New understanding of human genetics will not only make it easier to diagnose diseases, it will also change how diseases are treated. Scientists and drug companies are using knowledge from the Human Genome Project to find cures for everything from cancer to obesity (see chapter 1: Mapping the Human Genome). This new medicine is called "genomic" medicine. Medicine is changing at a rapid rate as a result of the new knowledge of the human genome. It is important for students to know how drugs and treatments are changing and will continue to change.

This course introduces students to machine learning in healthcare, including the nature of clinical data and the use of machine learning for risk stratification, disease progression modeling, precision medicine, diagnosis, subtype discovery, and improving clinical workflows.

In this activity, learners explore the "nuts and bolts" of gene chips. Learners construct a simple model of a DNA microarray (also known as gene chips) and learn how microarrays can be used to identify and treat disease--including cancer. This resource includes references and an explanation of microarrays.

Students create large-scale models of microfluidic devices using a process similar to that of the PDMS and plasma bonding that is used in the creation of lab-on-a-chip devices. They use disposable foam plates, plastic bendable straws and gelatin dessert mix. After the molds have hardened overnight, they use plastic syringes to inject their model devices with colored fluid to test various flow rates. From what they learn, students are able to answer the challenge question presented in lesson 1 of this unit by writing individual explanation statements.

The following open educational resource (OER) is intended for use by private pediatric practices that wish to train and educate its team members about proper vaccine management. Versions of this material have been uniquely adapted and rewritten for platforms such as the OER Commons and Amazon Kindle. This OER is not a substitute for official Vaccines for Children (VFC) training, vaccine manufacturer training, or training provided to pediatricians by state and county health departments (in the United States). The ParkHealth Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization in the United States that publishes OERs to accomplish its mission to teach widely. For more information, see www.park.health.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Lung phantoms are dynamic systems that simulate lung motion to predict tumor position for lung radiotherapy These predictions make cancer radiotherapy more precise, as lung tumors move during breathing Unfortunately, current lung motion phantoms don’t account for complex motion and deformation of surrounding organs Now, researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, have developed a lung phantom that can produce complex and irregular motions by using a motion platform with two independently programmable linear actuators The phantom provides reliable measurements of the tumor as well as surrounding organs at risk and can simulate variation in abdominal and thoracic engagement While the new lung phantom can’t fully reproduce human breathing, it comes pretty close It is a valuable tool for evaluating motion management strategies in lung radiotherapy Ranjbar et al. "A novel deformable lung phantom with programably variable external and internal correlation..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This course addresses the scientific basis for the development of new drugs. The first half of the semester begins with an overview of the drug discovery process, followed by fundamental principles of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, metabolism, and the mechanisms by which drugs cause therapeutic and toxic responses. The second half of the semester applies those principles to case studies and literature discussions of current problems with specific drugs, drug classes, and therapeutic targets.

Play a game and find out about a Nobel Prize awarded discovery or work! In this game you have to blood type each patient and give them a blood transfusion. Are you able to do that? If not, maybe you should read the introduction to blood typing before you start, otherwise you will put the patients' lives in danger!

This course provides an exploration of colonial and postcolonial clashes between theories of healing and embodiment in the African world and those of western bio-medicine. It examines how Afro-Atlantic religious traditions have challenged western conceptions of illness, healing, and the body and have also offered alternative notions of morality, rationality, kinship, gender, and sexuality. It also analyzes whether contemporary western bio-medical interventions reinforce colonial or imperial power in the effort to promote global health in Africa and the African diaspora.

Medicines By Design aims to explain how scientists unravel the many different ways medicines work in the body and how this information guides the hunt for drugs of the future. Pharmacology is a broad discipline encompassing every aspect of the study of drugs, including their discovery and development and the testing of their action in the body. Much of the most promising pharmacological research going on at universities across the country is sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Working at the crossroads of chemistry, genetics, cell biology, physiology, and engineering, pharmacologists are fighting disease in the laboratory and at the bedside.

This course introduces scholarly debates about the sociocultural practices through which individuals and societies create, sustain, recall, and erase memories. Emphasis is given to the history of knowledge, construction of memory, the role of authorities in shaping memory, and how societies decide on whose versions of memory are more “truthful” and “real.” Other topics include how memory works in the human brain, memory and trauma, amnesia, memory practices in the sciences, false memory, sites of memory, and the commodification of memory. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Microbiome research has consistently been placed in the spotlight over the past two decades, and has shown tremendous promise in the fields of medicine, environmental science, food production, and agriculture. Life on Earth does not exist without microbes, and we may benefit from learning more about them. Yet, there is no common understanding amongst researchers of what a 'microbiome’ actually is. Researchers are now proposing a common definition of ‘microbiome’ to ensure better, more robust research across different disciplines. The authors build on the historical definition offered by Whipps and colleagues in 1988 using new research insights. Additionally, they highlight the importance of microbiomes as drivers for the health of many eukaryotic hosts, including humans and plants. The proposed amendments to the definition specify the elements of microbiome composition and their interactions..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students obtain a basic understanding of microfluidic devices, how they are developed and their uses in the medical field. After conducting the associated activity, they watch a video clip and learn about flow rate and how this relates to the speed at which medicine takes effect in the body. What they learn contributes to their ongoing objective to answer the challenge question presented in lesson 1 of this unit. They conclude by solving flow rate problems provided on a worksheet.

This micrograph was taken at 100X total magnifcation on a brightfield microscope. The subject is Escherichia coli cells grown in broth culture overnight at 37 degrees Celsius. The cells were heat-fixed to a slide and Gram stained prior to visualization.Image credit: Emily Fox

Small molecules are chemicals that can interact with proteins to affect their functions. Learn about the structure and biological functions of various small molecules like sugar and caffeine. Also featured on the HHMI DVD, Scanning Life's Matrix: Genes, Proteins, and Small Molecules. Available free from HHMI.

Neuroscience for Pre-Clinical Students covers neuroenergetics, neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, and selected amino acid metabolism and degradation. This USMLE-aligned text is designed for a first-year undergraduate medical course and is meant to provide the essential biochemical information from these content areas in a concise format to enable students to engage in an active classroom. Hence, it does not cover neurophysiology and neuroanatomy; and clinical correlates and additional application of content are intended to be provided in the classroom experience. The text assumes that the students will have completed medical school prerequisites (including the MCAT) in which they will have been introduced to the most fundamental concepts of biology and chemistry that are essential to understand the content presented here. With its focus on high-yield concepts, this resource will assist the learner later in medical school and for exam preparation.

The 49-page text was created specifically for use by pre-clinical students at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and was based on faculty experience and peer review to guide development and hone important topics.

Available Formats
ISBN 978-1-949373-80-6 (PDF)
ISBN 978-1-949373-81-3 (ePub)
ISBN 978-1-949373-84-4 (print) https://www.amazon.com/Neuroscience-Pre-Clinical-Students-REN%C3%89E-LECLAIR
ISBN 978-1-949373-82-0 (Pressbooks) https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/neuroscience
Also available via LibreTexts: https://med.libretexts.org/@go/page/35685

How to Adopt this Book
Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting parts or the whole of the text are requested to register their interest at: https://bit.ly/interest-preclinical.

Instructors and subject matter experts interested in and sharing their original course materials relevant to pre-clinical education are requested to join the instructor portal at https://www.oercommons.org/groups/pre-clinical-resources/10133.

Features of this Book
1. Detailed learning objectives are provided at the beginning of each subsection;
2. High resolution, color contrasting figures illustrate concepts, relationships, and processes throughout;
3. Summary tables display detailed information;
4. End of chapter lists provide additional sources of information; and
5. Accessibility features including structured heads and alternative-text provide access for readers accessing the work via a screen-reader.

Table of Contents
1. Neuron and astrocyte metabolism
2. Neurotransmitters — ACh, glutamate, GABA, and glycine
3. Neuropeptides and unconventional neurotransmitters
4. Amino acid metabolism and specialized products

Suggested Citation
LeClair, Renée J., (2022). Neuroscience for Pre-Clinical Students, Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Tech Publishing. https://doi.org/10.21061/neuroscience. Licensed with CC BY NC-SA 4.0.

About the Author
Renée J. LeClair is an Associate Professor in the Department of Basic Science Education at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, where her role is to engage activities that support the departmental mission of developing an integrated medical experience using evidence-based delivery grounded in the science of learning. She received a Ph.D. at Rice University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute in vascular biology. She became involved in medical education, curricular renovation, and implementation of innovative teaching methods during her first faculty appointment, at the University of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine. In 2013, she moved to a new medical school, University of South Carolina, School of Medicine, Greenville. The opportunities afforded by joining a new program and serving as the Chair of the Curriculum committee provided a blank slate for creative curricular development and close involvement with the accreditation process. During her tenure she developed and directed a team-taught student-centered undergraduate medical course that integrated the scientific and clinical sciences to assess all six-core competencies of medical education.

Accessibility Note
The University Libraries at Virginia Tech and Virginia Tech Publishing are committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The HTML (Pressbooks) and ePub versions of this book utilize header structures and include alternative text which allow for machine-readability.

Please report any errors at https://bit.ly/feedback-preclinical

22.56J aims to give graduate students and advanced undergraduates background in the theory and application of noninvasive imaging methods to biology and medicine, with emphasis on neuroimaging. The course focuses on the modalities most frequently used in scientific research (X-ray CT, PET/SPECT, MRI, and optical imaging), and includes discussion of molecular imaging approaches used in conjunction with these scanning methods. Lectures by the professor will be supplemented by in-class discussions of problems in research, and hands-on demonstrations of imaging systems.

PLoS Medicine is an international, multidisciplinary medical journal that publishes outstanding human studies that substantially enhance the understanding of human health and disease. PLoS Medicine aims to promote translation of basic research into clinical investigation, and of clinical evidence into practice. PLoS Medicine encourages papers that cross disciplines.

PLoS ONE will be a high-volume, efficient and economical system for the publication of peer-reviewed research in all areas of science and medicine. It will provide a unique forum for community dialogue using the full potential of the web to accelerate scientific progress.