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This Research Skills Module is designed to develop your experimental design, report writing and practical skills. You will investigate a range of topics including drug toxicity testing, the effect of drugs on cognition, computer based molecular modelling, precision medicine, and the ethical issues surrounding drug testing on human volunteers.

BIOL20932 Pre & Co-requisite are BIOL10822 & BIOL21302

BIOL20932 Co-requisite is BIOL21302

To provide practical experience of research methods used in the discovery of drugs, from initial ideas through to full clinical use in man.

• Understand methods used in drug discovery and development
• Improve technical skills
• Find and understand information
• Analyse complex data sets
• Write scientific reports

May include “wet lab” versions or simulations of

Radioligand binding assay: competition and saturation binding assays
Computer methods for drug discovery: prediction of drug potency using molecular modelling software.
Practical data analysis: graphing and analysing experimental data using GraphPad Prism software.
Schild analysis: students will study the interaction of methacholine and atropine analogues in rat ileum.
Human volunteer practicals e.g. paracetamol metabolism
Animal tissue practicals such as a dissection

• Pre-RSM e-assessments mcqs and short note questions (10%)
• Short note questions (30%)
• Full practical write-up (40%)
• Group based results report (incl peer assessment) 20%)

 

RSM Attendance guidelines.

Students are expected to attend all scheduled RSM sessions on time (N.B. Health and safety information will be delivered at the start of practical sessions, and students who are not present at the start may be asked to leave the lab). Students who arrive late will be marked as absent for that session. Failure to attend a session (an unauthorised absence) will result in a 10% (i.e. 10 mark) penalty being applied to the overall RSM mark (i.e. a student obtaining a mark of 65% overall will instead receive a mark of 55%). Furthermore, any students who miss a practical session will not receive a mark for any associated post-lab assessment (N.B. this mark will be removed before calculating the average post-lab mark to avoid a student being penalised twice).Further absences will result in further penalties (i.e. 2 absences = a penalty of 20% (as described above)).

Due to the use of animal tissues, students are also required to complete Health Screening by the University Occupational Health Service. Not completing screening will result in exclusion and unauthorised absence from the relevant practicals and mark penalties as detailed above.

Feedback will be provided via annotated practical write-ups and verbal advice on practical techniques during classes.

The year studying abroad is an integral part of the course and must be completed. Some costs, such as tuition fees, are substantially lower. Other costs can vary and are not included in the tuition fee. For example, living costs may be higher or lower than the UK, and there are travel-related costs to consider, such as paying for a passport, visa fees, health insurance, and (if needed) vaccinations.

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 (PDF document, 91KB).

Students participating in placements outside the UK may be able to apply for funding from the depending on eligibility. Priority will be given to students from low income households.