Study Programme
From cardiovascular foundations to independent research
Your programme at a glance
Year 1 starts with Molecular Biology of the Cell (6 EC), the compulsory course for all Medical Biology students. You then take two Cardiovascular Sciences courses totalling 12 EC: Heart Development, Function and Disease and Vascular Development, Function and Disease. After your coursework, you move into your first extensive research project and literature review.
Year 2 gives you further freedom to shape your programme. Depending on your choices, you can carry out a second research project, complete your literature review and take up to 18 EC of electives. You can also choose an alternative programme involving a major or professional specialisation.
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Molecular Biology of the Cell
All Medical Biology students start with this compulsory course, which provides a shared foundation in molecular and cellular biology. You revisit core processes such as cellular signalling, metabolism, protein function and gene expression before applying this knowledge within your chosen track.
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Heart Development, Function and Disease
Explore how the heart develops and functions before investigating what changes in cardiovascular disease. Topics include cardiac development and morphology, electrophysiology, contractility and energy metabolism, as well as disease mechanisms, experimental models and developments in diagnosis and treatment.
Clinical context is used to introduce the scientific questions, after which you examine their fundamental and mechanistic basis through lectures, assignments and lab visits.
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Vascular Development, Function and Disease
Study how the vascular system develops and functions, including circulation, thrombosis and haemostasis. You then explore mechanisms underlying vascular disease, including atherosclerosis and diabetes, and their consequences for organ function.
As in the cardiac course, clinically relevant questions provide context for exploring the fundamental biology and mechanisms underlying disease.
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Heart and vasculature as one system
Although the two courses have different focal points, cardiovascular disease rarely affects the heart or vasculature in isolation. Throughout both courses, you examine their interaction and learn to approach cardiovascular health and disease as an interconnected biological system.
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Shape your programme with electives
Your compulsory cardiovascular courses give you a broad scientific foundation, but they do not determine your entire MSc. In the regular programme, you can take up to 18 EC of electives in your second year.
Use this space to deepen your expertise in a particular area of cardiovascular science, explore related areas of biomedical research or develop complementary scientific and professional skills. Together with your research projects, these choices allow you to build a profile around the questions and methods that interest you most.
Conduct cardiovascular research
Research projects form a substantial part of your MSc and give you the time to become fully involved in a research group. You work on a substantial scientific question under the supervision of active researchers and take increasing responsibility for designing your research, choosing appropriate methods, analysing results and communicating your findings.
Through ACS, you can encounter research across a wide range of cardiovascular topics. Current ACS research includes atherosclerosis and aortic disease, cardiomyopathy and arrhythmias, diabetes and hypertensive diseases, and pulmonary hypertension and critical care.
The methods you use depend on your research question. Research projects currently offered within ACS illustrate the breadth of possibilities, including molecular and cell biology, CRISPR-based approaches, transcriptomics and bioinformatics, live-cell microscopy, iPSC models, animal models and research involving human tissue. Available projects vary over time.
Research close to cardiovascular medicine
Your research takes place in an environment where fundamental science and cardiovascular medicine are closely connected. ACS brings basic and clinical cardiovascular research together across Amsterdam UMC, allowing scientific questions to be informed by the realities of cardiovascular disease and, depending on the project, by patient-related research, human samples and biomedical data.
This does not make Cardiovascular Sciences a clinical Master's programme. Your role is that of a biomedical researcher: understanding mechanisms, generating evidence and contributing new scientific knowledge.
Become part of the scientific community
ACS brings together around 800 researchers working across cardiovascular science, creating a large and diverse scientific community around the track. Your lecturers are clinical and pre-clinical researchers who are actively working on cardiovascular research. They introduce you not only to established knowledge, but also to questions that are still unresolved and therefore open to further investigation.
As a Cardiovascular Sciences student, you can also participate in ACS seminars, symposia and other scientific activities. This exposes you to different research groups and approaches and can help you identify the topics, supervisors and research environments that fit your interests.
Develop independence with personal supervision
Becoming an independent researcher does not mean working without support. During your research projects, you work within an established research group and receive scientific supervision while gradually taking more ownership of your own project.
Further shape your MSc
If you want to develop a different profile, options available within Biomedical Sciences include the 60 EC Big Biomedical Data Analysis major, which combines biomedical research with genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and bioinformatics.