1. Upon completion of the course the student has knowledge of and insight into the following fundamental cell biological processes in animal cells at the level of the main molecular components and regulators involved:
   • Cell communication and signal transduction (nuclear response, regulation of the cell cycle and cell differentiation)
   • Protein sorting and intracellular transport
   • Regulation and function of the cytoskeleton in cell morphology, intracellular transport, cell migration and mitosis
   • Integration of cells in tissues, and the functions of cell adhesion and extracellular matrix proteins
2. Upon completion of the course, the student understands how the above processed functionally interact and how they are involved in human diseases, particularly the onset and progression of cancer
3. Upon completion of the course the student masters practical skills required to implement basic cell culture techniques and can independently apply these skills, in combination with the above theoretical knowledge, to design, perform and report upon an experiment aimed at testing a specific hypothesis on the mechanism of cell adhesion
4. Upon completion of the course the student can apply the molecular and cell biological knowledge to the extent required to describe the physiological function of molecular components and regulators of the cell biological processes mentioned above
5. Upon completion of the course the student will be able to place scientific literature in English into the context of the knowledge gained in the course and to apply this literature, with a team of fellow students,  towards a presentation in which the relationship between the mutation or defect of a single gene product, and the pathophysiology of a resulting humane monogenetic disease is described.

The lectures will cover:

1. Regulation of the cell cycle
2. Growth factors and receptors
3. Signal transduction (protein kinases, second messengers, nuclear response)
4. Tumorigenesis (initiatie, promotie, progressive, oncogenes and tumorsuppressor genes)
5. Stem cells (embryonic, adult, cancer stem cells, induced pluripotent)
6. Protein sorting (signal sequence, membrane topology, ER quality control, glycosylation)
7. Vesicular transport
8. Cytoskeleton (functions in cell morphology, cell migration and mitosis)
9. Cell adhesion
10. Extracellular matrix

Experimental work will include cell culture and experiments on the interaction of cells with extracellular matrix

Group projects will be focused on human diseases that originate from mutations or deregulated expression of proteins involved in cell biological processes covered in this course.