MSc Precision Medicine

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2027, the tuition fees are as follows:

• MSc (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £17,600
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £44,000

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

International student CAS deposit

Self-funded international applicants are required to pay a deposit of £2500 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. Some applicants will be required to pay a higher deposit. More information on tuition fee deposits .

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

For the latest scholarship and bursary information, please visit the fees and funding page .

International scholarships

Scholarships for international students are available through the Global Futures scheme. Visit the scholarship page to find out more about eligibility and how to apply.

The unit will focus on the profiling and targeted analysis of proteins and metabolites in biological systems. The unit aims to provide students with an introduction to the scientific disciplines of proteomics and metabolomics and how relevant experimental techniques are applied in medical research with an emphasis on biomarker discovery and applications in diagnosis and prognosis of disease. The unit covers experimental techniques for measurement; protein localization; quantitative assays; in vitro or in vivo studies of protein structure, function, and post-translational modification; metabolic pathway enrichment analysis and overview of data handling as well as analysis. The teaching of proteomics and metabolomics will be interspersed across a two-three week period. 

The primary objective of this module is to introduce the scientific disciplines of proteomics and metabolomics. The secondary objective is to provide an appreciation of the experimental techniques used in proteomic and metabolomic studies. Students will gain knowledge of basic requirements for proteomic and metabolomic studies and insights into how these techniques are applied in medical research with emphasis on biomarker discovery and applications in diagnosis of disease. The unit will provide overview of entire workflows of both omics technologies.

The module will be delivered over two-three weeks and consists of a series of face to face lectures, interactive seminars, omics lab tour and pre-recorded content. Lectures are supported with examples of online resources and/or key references.  

Enquiry-based learning will be applied to allow students to perform critical thinking in relation to scientific studies already performed and published in peer-reviewed journals.  

The group presentations provide further learning opportunities and formative feedback will be provided through seminar activities. A multiple-choice questions exam will test the fundamental understanding of topics covered.

i) Identify and recall different proteomics and metabolomics approaches for biomarker discovery.  

ii) Explain the working principles of key analytical techniques used in metabolomics and proteomics.  

iii) Summarize the diagnostic platforms utilized for measuring proteins and metabolites in Precision Medicine.  

iv) Analyse and evaluate the design of metabolomic and proteomic experiments in a critical manner.  

v) Assess and determine the relevance of omics/multiomics results in published biomedical research. 

vi) Assess and critique current Proteomics and Metabolomics and multiomics research in Precision Medicine from a critical perspective.

vii) Create and develop research questions pertaining to the utilization of proteomic and metabolomic techniques for the identification of biomarkers and characterization of molecular phenotypes in diseases. 

viii) Apply effective communication skills to present scientific data in a clear, concise, and impactful manner through visual, oral, and written means.  

ix) Analyse and interpret metabolomics and proteomics research data while identifying limitations within the study design. 

x) Apply effective communication skills in various forms and contexts to convey information clearly and accurately.  

xi) Analyse complex problems, identify their components, and develop strategies to address and solve them effectively.  

xii) Integrate independent thinking with collaborative skills to work effectively as a team member, contributing unique perspectives while also respecting and collaborating with others. 

Marks and written feedback are provided to students on all written and oral assessments, including feedback on what was done well and what could be improved in order to achieve the next grade. 
A survey is used to gather feedback from the students on the course unit.

Core text for metabolomics: Adamski J, Metabolomics for Biomedical Research (2020), Academic press, Available via library and as e-book.

Metabolomics 
1.    Bos LD, Sterk PJ, Fowler SJ. (2016), Breathomics in the setting of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. J Allergy Clin Immunol 138:970-6 
2.    Goodacre, R. et al. (2004) Metabolomics by numbers - acquiring and understanding global metabolite data. Trends in Biotechnology 22, 245-252 
3.    Goodacre, R. (2007) Metabolomics of a superorganism. Journal of Nutrition 137, 259S 266S 
4.    Holmes et al. (2008). Metabolic phenotyping in health and disease. Cell 134:714-717. 
5.    Kell DB (2004). Metabolomics and systems biology: Making sense of the soup. Current Opinion in Microbiology 7(3):296-307 
6.    Lawal O et al (2017) Exhaled breath analysis: a review of 'breath-taking' methods for off-line analysis. Metabolomics 13:110. doi: 10.1007/s11306-017-1241-8 
7.    Mamas, M.,et al (2011) The role of metabolites and metabolomics in clinically applicable biomarkers of disease. Archives of Toxicology 85, 5- 17. 
8.    Trivedi, D. et al (2017) Metabolomics for the masses: the future of metabolomics in a personalised world. New Horizons in Translational Metabolomics 3(6):294-305 
9.    Wishart DS (2016). Emerging applications of metabolomics in drug discovery and precision medicine. Nature Rev. Drug. Discov. doi: 10.1038/nrd.2016.32. 

Proteomics:
10.    Aebersold R and Mann M. (2016) Mass-spectrometric exploration of proteome structure and function. Nature. 537(7620):347-55. 
11.    Chait BT. (2006) Mass spectrometry: bottom-up or top-down? Science. 314(5796):65-6. 
12.    Chen et al. (2012). Personal omics profiling reveals dynamic molecular and medical phenotypes. Cell 148:1293-1307. 
13.    Domon B1, Aebersold R (2006), Mass spectrometry and protein analysis. Science. 312(5771):212-7. 
14.    Ebhardt HA, et al (2015) Applications of targeted proteomics in systems biology and translational medicine. Proteomics (18):3193-208. 
15.    Geyer PE et al. (2017) Revisiting biomarker discovery by plasma proteomics, Mol Syst Biol, 13(9): 942 
16.    Gahoi N1, Ray S, Srivastava S. (2015), Array-based proteomic approaches to study signal transduction pathways: prospects, merits and challenges, Proteomics, 15(2-3): 218-31
17.    Latosinska A et al (2015), Comparative Analysis of Label-Free and 8-Plex iTRAQ Approach for Quantitative Tissue Proteomic Analysis. PLoS One.10(9): e0137048. 
18.    Marcotte EM. (2007), How do shotgun proteomics algorithms identify proteins? Nat Biotechnol; 25(7):755-7. 
19.    Rogowska-Wrzesinska A et al (2013), 2D gels still have a niche in proteomics. J Proteomics. 88:4-13.