A collaborative educational initiative between the graduate schools and medical school of Tufts University and Pine Manor College.

Laura Liscum, Ph.D, (Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences),  Richard Glickman-Simon, M.D.,  (School of Medicine), and Susan E. Bear, Ph.D. of the biology department at Pine Manor College, have teamed to create a unique offering to the students at Pine Manor.  The undergraduate course Pathophysiology is being team taught by students from Sackler, the Friedman School of Nutrition, and the Medical School.  The course focused on six diseases (osteoporosis, breast cancer, obesity, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and asthma) from three distinct approaches:  nutrition/public health, basic science/pathophysiology, clinical diagnosis and treatment.  This course provides a unique opportunity for the graduate and medical students to communicate information effectively and to interact with undergraduate students.  These students provide wonderful role models for the Pine Manor students which will help to stimulate the students’ interest in future careers in research and health care.

Pathophysiology can be defined as “the functional changes associated with or resulting from disease or injury, and “the scientific study of such changes. During this course you will be studying 6 disease states: osteoporosis, breast cancer, obesity, heart disease, metabolic syndrome and asthma. We will approach these diseases from three perspectives: the clinical picture (anatomy/physiology/symptoms), the contribution that nutrition or public health concerns makes to the disease, and the findings from research that contribute to our understanding of the disease and to treatment options.