Editor's Note: For information on the Boulder site, please contact Gail Siegel or Mike Liguori at the numbers listed above. For information about the content of the program, J. John Cohen or the CU Health Sciences Center, contact Dana Berry.
Killer T-cells, antibodies, new drugs and cancer breakthroughs will be among the many topics examined during a free nine-week "CU Mini Med School" hosted by the University of Colorado at Boulder Sept. 22 to Nov. 17.
CU Mini Med School is presented by doctors and professors at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. Nine Wednesday evening lectures, each starting at 7 p.m., will be broadcast live from Denver to the CU-Boulder Engineering Center's smart conference room, room 265. Free parking is available after 5 p.m. in campus lot 436 just southeast of the intersection of Regent Drive and Colorado.
This year marks the first time the 15-year-old CU Mini Med School program will have a remote site hosted by CU-Boulder.
"The people who attend the program do so for three reasons," said Dr. J. John Cohen, Mini Med School founding director and lecturer. "They are genuinely interested in learning about health care; they have a particular disease and want to ask questions about it; or they are coming because it sounds interesting and it is free."
Registration by Sept. 24 is required to attend, and a materials fee of $15 will be charged at the first class. The fee covers the cost of a comprehensive syllabus with reference materials. Participants must register and attend all of the sessions. To register for the CU-Boulder site, contact Gail Siegel at CU-Boulder Community Relations, (303) 492-7084.
The program covers the basic science that underlies medicine, including topics like molecular and cell biology, anatomy, physiology, neurology, pathology and immunology. Lecturers are selected for their ability to make the technical language of medicine understandable.
"The lecturers are either Ph.D.s or M.D.s who have to be able to explain things in simplified but not condescending language," Cohen said. "Humor helps a great deal, too. We entertain, but we also make the audience work hard to follow the concepts."
A pre-lecture reception begins each Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. After a one-hour lecture, presenters will answer questions from audiences in Denver and other remote sites. Questions from the audience in Boulder will be faxed to the lecturers in Denver. Each session is expected to wrap-up by about 8:30 p.m.
CU Mini Med School is non-accredited and does not attempt to fulfill any academic requirements. It does not confer a medical degree or license a participant to practice medicine. Participants will receive a Mini Med School diploma at the end of the course.
The program has been offered once a year since 1989, and in 1995 organizers began broadcasting lectures to remote sites. More than 4,000 participants in Denver, Pueblo, Montrose, Grand Junction, Alamosa and Greeley have attended CU Mini Med School since its inception. For more information about the program, visit .