DSPARK SPARK webinar series

Faculty of Medicine
autumn 2023
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 2 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Ing. Karolína Kašparová (lecturer)
Ing. Daniela Podzemná (assistant)
Guaranteed by
prof. MUDr. Tomáš Kašpárek, Ph.D.
Faculty of Medicine
Contact Person: Ing. Daniela Podzemná
Supplier department: Faculty of Medicine
Prerequisites
The course is targeted primarily at Ph.D. candidates from the Faculty of Medicine or any other relevant study field/faculty but is also open to postdoctoral researchers. Attendees of any other faculty/relevant study and research field are welcome to join. The course is offered online. Registration for each individual webinar is required.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
The course's main objective is to help Ph.D. candidates to gain and develop cutting-edgecompetencies for innovation in the 21st century. These webinars provide the complex multidisciplinary expertise associated with the development of new innovations in medicine, like assessing clinical needs, creating a target product profile, pre-clinical work, preparing for the clinic, transferring technology, commercialization, and entrepreneurship. As well as inspire and motivate attendees through case studies, and offer real input from industry experts and entrepreneurs.
Learning outcomes
Participants will:
- get a real insight into the biotech industry
- understand the practical aspects of translation and entrepreneurship,
- gain the skills to perform adequate consideration of individual steps in translation project planning,
- know the legislative framework and sources of regulatory information
- know the common mistakes and weaknesses and strategies of risk management,
- find out the best practice through the inclusion of case reports, interactive scenarios of webinars and useful additional sources and follow-up surveys, resulting in a highly applied character of this course.
Syllabus
  • SPARK is a series of webinars for each semester where invited guests are scientists, experts in a particular field or entrepreneurs from the Czech Republic or abroad. The program of the series and all the materials can be found and will be announced before the start of every semester at the following website: https://www.med.muni.cz/en/research-and-development/research-and-development/applied-research-and-intellectual-property/spark-global A translational research mindset should be integrated into research culture by complementing the researchers´ skill sets with those of experts in clinical development strategies, regulatory matters, patent and corporate law, and investor and industry relations. Therefore, each 1-hour webinar will serve the target audience as a basis for acquiring applicable knowledge, skills, and abilities to plan, prepare, manage, evaluate, and monitor the progress of his/her own promising research project. Each webinar will be given by a hands-on expert in the topics, and 10-15 min of Q&A will be planned. The topics will be included to address the specifics of early translational projects, mainly:
  • - Medical need, defining the precise indication and the patient population
  • - A target product profile
  • - Project Management and Project Planning
  • - Pre-clinical Studies
  • - Drug Repurposing
  • - Developing Assays for High-Throughput Screening
  • - Medical Chemistry and Lead Optimization
  • - Animal Studies
  • - Pre-clinical Safety Studies
  • - Regulatory Issues in Product Development
  • - Manufacturing and Quality Control
  • - Clinical Trial Design
  • - Technology Transfer
  • - Commercialization and Entrepreneurship
  • - Market Assessments
  • - Making a Compelling Pitch to Potential Investors
  • - Venture Capital Funding
  • - Legal Aspects of a Start-Up Biotechnology Company
  • The content will be adapted to the target audience of Ph.D. candidates and early-career researchers, whose research increasingly requires the arrangement towards translation.
Literature
  • • each session will be recorded and, together with the presentations shared afterwards
  • • optional (SPARK Stanford Program Sources): Mochly-Rosen, Daria & Grimes, Kevin. (2014). A Practical Guide to Drug Development in Academia: The SPARK Approach. 10.1007/978-3-319-02201-7.
Teaching methods
The first Wednesday once a month, 4 PM to 5 PM CET, online. Changes might occur due to a conflict of schedule with invited speakers.
SPARK webinars aim to bridge the gap between academia and industry and present various topics in the field of translational research. Digital tools will be utilized in the webinars to enhance interactive culture and allow live feedback and hands-on experience for participants, f.e. slido.com live polls, Q&A, and quizzes. The participants will be provided with recordings, presentations, recommended additional sources for each webinar, Q&A summaries, and follow-up quizzes in a digital format (such as different formats of documents, video, recordings, etc.).
Assessment methods
To be entitled to credits, participants:
• must fulfill 80 % of obligatory attendance of the events. Attendance will be registered.
• need to fill in a short course survey to reflect on their primary learning outcomes and describe how they may utilize those in their own journey.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms spring 2024, autumn 2024, spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (autumn 2023, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/med/autumn2023/DSPARK