Educational goals

The EC2U International Master's Degree Course LIFELONG WELL-BEING AND HEALTHY AGEING (LIFELINE) is a training course designed by seven European Universities (Coimbra, Iasi, Jena, Pavia, Poitiers, Salamanca, Turku) with the aim of promoting highly qualified and interdisciplinary which makes mobility its founding element. The course aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills to acquire training in research and autonomous and responsible professional practical application with an integrated multidisciplinary approach relating to well-being throughout human life and active and healthy aging. Health. The training contents of the Course include 120 CFU/ECTS divided into 30 CFU/ECTS per semester, for a total of four semesters. Each semester includes courses in characteristic and similar disciplinary sectors with a variable number of CFU/ECTS for a total of 30. The thematic areas may include multiple courses. The training course can follow two directions which include courses more oriented towards research in the biomedical and biostatistical fields (so-called HEALTH path) or courses more oriented towards the management of well-being and safety (so-called WELFARE path) with common elements during the first semester (compulsory courses in the field of social psychology and demography and free choice in the field of sociology, psychophysiology and social psychology) which provide the student with knowledge of the bio-psycho-social model applied to ageing. This model integrates the biological aspect (age, sex, genetics, psychological reactions and health of the person), the sociological one (interpersonal relationships, social support and socioeconomic aspects) and the psychological one (mental and emotional health, beliefs and expectations. In the first semester the common location for all students enrolled in the Course is the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, in the second semester the University of Salamanca, Turku or Iasi, in the third semester, the University of Coimbra, Jena, Pavia or Poitiers. In the fourth semester the student will freely attend the university, provided that he has not already attended two semesters. The student carries out the research, the internship and the writing of the experimental thesis under joint supervision The main objective of the training project is to offer students the appropriate tools in the social and health field to recognize, carry out and manage a series of tasks aimed at preserving good "health" with specialized methods and at the same time integrated in a multicultural perspective. The main motivation for the establishment of another course in the LM-9 class is linked to the specificity of the training project which requires multidimensional training at an international European level which leads to the training of a biotechnologist who can be an expert not only in biomedical aspects, but also of the social and behavioral determinants specifically associated with aging. The application of multidisciplinary training to well-being in the life cycle with specific attention to the age of senescence allows us to: a) conduct epidemiological, laboratory and applied research, in order to understand the aging phenomenon in greater depth on the biomedical side ; b) promote and support the maintenance of well-being in harmony with organic, psychic and mental, as well as socio-cultural and environmental, factors throughout the life cycle; c) manage ethical issues within socio-health contexts, respecting the measures to safeguard health and well-being and promoting multi-specialist organizational methods; d) involve users and the various professional figures of reference with the aim of building support and care paths both within national and European public institutions and in the context of private companies. All these characteristics make the course unique in its kind and provide added value to the professional and personal development of the student which represents a unique compared to the other master's courses present in the educational offer of the University of Pavia. The objective of the training course is relevant to the degree class chosen precisely because it grafts highly innovative elements of integrated knowledge onto solid basic skills that allow a possible super-specialist evolution of the biotechnologist's professional profile. There will be in-depth content on knowledge of the most advanced biotechnological applications in the field of basic and applied biomedical research, including molecular diagnosis systems, cell and gene therapy, regenerative medicine, nanobiotechnologies and technologies for the identification of new targets therapeutic molecules and for the development and production of new drugs and bio-active molecules on fundamental issues, such as carcinogenesis, neurodegeneration and the development of chronic pathologies and cardiovascular, osteoarticular, muscular multimorbidity, etc. The training course involves the acquisition of biostatistical skills through the learning of digital, technological and IT skills for the management of "big data" for the purposes of socio-demographic and biological research, management and organization of sustainable health systems and policies, without neglecting the ethical aspects of the sustainability of care in the individual's life cycle. In-depth aspects of prevention and self-care in the field of so-called geroscience which has as its cornerstone lifestyles on the physical, emotional and cognitive side, and environmental organizational models favorable to active longevity constitute an enrichment on the training side of the biotechnologist. Furthermore, a series of in-depth courses on gender-specific and transgenerational medicine with particular attention to the foundations that are laid in prenatal life and unfold over time from the first thousand days to young adulthood and then following in future generations, complete the training proposal together with elements of motor, organ and sensory prosthetic surgery. The theoretical and methodological knowledge relating to biomedical, biostatistical and management aspects will be supported by practical activities in the field in the laboratories and facilities available in the seven universities involved or connected to them in some way. Finally, within the course of studies, the in-depth study of psycho-social aspects will also be favored by similar supplementary courses. Overall, the training activities envisaged by the master's degree course LIFELONG WELL-BEING AND HEALTHY AGEING (LIFELINE) have the aim of building cultural bridges between determinants of well-being and successful aging that are apparently distant from each other, encouraging the student's creative process in a lego-curriculum.

Career opportunities

Biotechnologist expert in the biopsychosocial aspects related to aging. The employment opportunities for the biotechnologist in LIFELONG WELL-BEING AND HEALTHY AGING (LIFELINE) are: - Employee/manager/manager at national and international biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies - Laboratory worker/manager at laboratories of public and private healthcare facilities - Manager/researcher/manager in the regulatory field for structures involved in production and preclinical and clinical testing programs - Manager/manager in structures responsible for the supervision of biotechnological processes with ethical, social and behavioral implications - Scientific research at national and international research bodies

Admission requirements

To be admitted to the master's degree course, the student must be in possession of a degree (including that obtained according to the regulations previously in force under Ministerial Decree 509/1999 and subsequent amendments and additions) or a three-year university diploma, or another qualification obtained abroad, issued by a higher education institution belonging to a member state of the European Higher Education Area which gives the right to access master's degree courses in a specific partner country. Graduates from training systems outside the European Higher Education Area may also be admitted if they have an equivalent university qualification. The curricular requirements required for direct enrollment are a degree obtained in Italy in one of the following classes referred to in the Ministerial Decree. 270/2004: • L-2 Biotechnology, • L-13 Biological Sciences, • LM-13 Pharmacy and Industrial Pharmacy (including the single-cycle degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies), • LM-41 Medicine and Surgery and corresponding former classes DM 509/1999. Graduate students in possession of a foreign qualification will be assessed for correspondence with the above-mentioned classes. In the event that the student has not graduated in one of the above-mentioned classes, the curricular requirements are considered satisfied if the student has acquired a minimum number of credits in the following scientific-disciplinary sectors as reported here: • minimum 10 ECTS in mathematical disciplines , physics, computer science and statistics corresponding to the following scientific-disciplinary sectors: from FIS/01 to FIS/08, from MAT/01 to MAT/09, INF/01, MED/01, SECS-S/01, SECS-S/ 02; • minimum 10 CFU in chemical and biological disciplines corresponding to the following scientific-disciplinary sectors: CHIM/01, CHIM/02, CHIM/03, CHIM/06, BIO/01, BIO/10, BIO/11, BIO/13, BIO /17, BIO/18, BIO/19; • minimum 20 CFU in biotechnological disciplines corresponding to the following scientific-disciplinary sectors: from BIO/01 to BIO/07, from BIO/12 to BIO/19, from CHIM/01 to CHIM/05, from CHIM/08 to CHIM/11 , MED/03, MED/04, MED/05, MED/07, MED/09, MED/13, MED/15, MED/42. The Course will verify the adequate preparation of the students through a selection whose contents and methods will be described in the specific admission notice, in accordance with the provisions of the Course Regulations of the Course and the Supplement n. 4 EC2U Consortium Agreement. The Evaluation Commission will be able to direct candidates with serious training gaps to specific support tutoring. Considering that the course will be entirely in English, knowledge of the language at a level no lower than B2 of the Common European Framework is required.