Plants and Health 2

Plants affect human and animal health in a variety of ways. Plants provide essential nutrients such as vitamins, amino acids, carbohydrates and lipids and they produce other compounds either beneficiary for health (including biopharmaceuticals) or having an adverse effect (e.g. toxins, allergens). The effects plants have on the well-being of humans also have sociological/psychological backgrounds, have economic implications and led to legislation and regulation. The main focus of this course will be on compounds, their production in plants, the possibilities to improve their production, and their biochemical/physiological effects on animals and man. Furthermore, the effect of plant-derived compounds, from a social scientific point of view will also be discussed. The course focuses on how various plant compounds affect health, which plants produce what compounds, why do plants make these compounds, and how plants can be manipulated, using gene technology or plant breeding, to produce more of a desired compound or less of an undesired compound. As such, relevant aspects of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, immunology and human pathology and physiology will be discussed in an integrated fashion. This course will train students in dissecting a complex scientific problem into a smaller feasible subproject, linking knowledge of the aforementioned domains to design and execute experiments, evaluate the quality of the resulting data, and interpret these to address a previously formulated research question related to plant health aspects.

• Explain how and why plants produce compounds that affect health

• Analyse how these compounds (specialised metabolites) are produced in plants

• Explain how various groups of plant produced chemical compounds affect health

• Design (basic) expression strategies for biopharmaceuticals (heterologously produced proteins)- explain the application of plant produced biopharmaceuticals for healthcare purposes

• Apply the basic principles of biochemical pathway engineering to improve or alter the production of compounds having an effect on health

• Evaluate "-omics" data (generated or literature-based) as a means to unravel biochemical pathways and as a means to make an inventory of the compounds produced in a plant species which is essential for application in a medical context

• Interpret and use the literature in the field of health-affecting plant metabolites to synthesize hypotheses into a possible biological story related to the health effects of plant metabolites;- interpret the direct and indirect effects of these compounds on the human body

• Appraise health claims

• Interpret the direct and indirect effects of these compounds on the human body

• Write, together with other students, an essay on a plant-health-related topic and provide constructive feedback

• Present experimentally generated data in appropriate graphs and a poster and discuss ideas and concepts with other students and teachers

• Assignment report (40%) Students will work in small groups (2-4 students) to design and execute laboratory experiments and present and defend the results at the end of the course. In case of a failed report students can hand in a revised version at the next re-sit period.
• Written test with open questions (40%) Written open book exam: three problem cases will be given with 4-8 questions per case to be answered.
• Assignment other (20%) After the lecture starting a new module, students will be given an assignment on which they will work in groups (of 2-4 students per group). At the end of the module, students will report their findings in the form of a short presentation, role play, flyer or other work form. In case of a insufficiënt outcome students can hand in a revised version at the next re-sit period.

ZSS06100 Laboratory Safety NEM22306 Plants and Health 1

• Will be made available at the start of the course.