MSc Infection Biology

Lab Induction – Volumes and pipetting, weights and measures, aseptic technique, serial dilutions and buffer preparation.

Workshop 1 - Staining techniques: histological staining, immunohistochemistry. 

Workshop 2 - Nucleic acid techniques: PCR, Real-time PCR and qPCR.

Workshop 3 - Protein handling techniques 1 & 2: 1 - Protein extraction/purification and analysis, including SDS-PAGE. 2: Western blot.

Scientific Report Writing – recording results and data, and writing scientific reports, including methods, figures, figure legends and referencing.

Students will complete a total of FOUR workshops including both parts of the Induction, Workshop 4 (both compulsory) and two further workshops from workshops 1-3.

Equip students with the theoretical understanding and practical skills relating to laboratory-based biomedical techniques to enable them to undertake, interpret and accurately record experimental research in the biomedical sciences.

Knowledge and understanding

• Develop awareness of current best practice in laboratory health and safety and understand how to keep themselves and those around them safe within a laboratory environment.
• Develop an understanding of the principles of a range of practical techniques used in the biomedical context and understand how to employ and adapt these within their own research applications.  

Intellectual skills  

• Develop critical understanding of the limitations of particular techniques and their applications.
• Develop an understanding of how to solve problems arising from unexpected results. Practical skills• Acquire the practical skills to enable them to follow written standard laboratory methods and achieve expected outcomes.
• Acquire technical competence in a range of biomedical and computational techniques.
• Learn best practice for recording experimental procedures and outcomes in a standard laboratory notebook.

Transferable skills and personal qualities

• Be able to carry out laboratory techniques alone or in partnership with others safely and efficiently.
• Demonstrate the ability to record experimental procedures in written form and to interpret experimental results obtained. 

The learning and teaching processes will take the form of lectures, practical laboratory classes, laboratory demonstrations and e-Learning (completion of on-line summative assessments).

All students MUST attend Lab Induction and two further workshops from workshops 1 - 3 to complete the unit.

Lab Induction will not be assessed.

For BOTH of the other two workshops attended, from Workshops 1-3:(a) Pre-lab online MCQ test - 10% weighting, average of two tests (b) Post-lab online MCQ test - 10% weighting, average of two tests. For ONE of the workshops 1-3 (chosen by the student): A written practical report, 1000 words, containing Introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusion with reference to relevant published literature. This has an 80% weighting. Students must also accurately record the results obtained in each lab workshop in a laboratory notebook.