Course description
Biotechnology is the application of the biological sciences, using living organisms or natural products, in industrial situations. It's a growth area, with specific applications to the pharmaceutical, agricultural, pollution control and waste management industries. There is a demand for biotechnologists with an understanding and awareness of the industrial and medical applications of this technology.
Course structure
Modules include Introduction and Professional Studies, Analytical Methods, Analytical Laboratory, Applied and Environmental Biotechnology, Biomanufacturing, and Project Management and Enterprise.
Careers
Graduates are employed in the fields of biotechnology, biochemistry and pharmaceutical science or progress to teaching or higher degree-level study.
Industrial experience
On each master's degree you'll complete an industrially-related project. This, along with the involvement of industrialists, practitioners and academics in the delivery of these courses, ensures that they are relevant to the demands of the process manufacturing industries.
Intermediate awards
Our master's degrees can lead to the award of a postgraduate certificate at Stage 1 (60 credits - 3 modules), a postgraduate diploma at Stage 2 (120 credits - 6 modules) or, on completion of a research project, the MSc.
Block release study
Our master's degrees are available on a block-release basis: you'll study for one week between 9.00am and 6.00pm with follow-up days in the next four weeks together with accompanying assignment work.
Stage 1
Introduction and Professional Studies
This module is designed to introduce you to the issues related to studying beyond undergraduate level. It applies to students on taught postgraduate courses and those who are embarking on a programme of research. The module encompasses issues such as enrolment, health and safety, using Blackboard, report writing and referencing, ethics, plagiarism, time management and numerical techniques. You will also examine discipline specific areas pertinent to your pathway, which will offer you a particular grounding, skills base or understanding required at the early stage of your study. You will be introduced to personal development planning, by keeping a formal log book.
Analytical Methods
This module describes the theory underpinning major analytical techniques currently used in both biology and chemistry. The first part of the module provides a common grounding in techniques common to both the chemical and biological sciences. In the second part you will consider a deeper analysis of techniques specific to either chemical or biological pathways.
Analytical Laboratory
This module is designed to develop essential practical analytical skills within a task-oriented structure. Emphasis is placed upon developing problem solving skills and initiative. You’ll select practical tasks from a suite of experiments. These experiments are selected to give you a broad introduction to modern methods of analysis performed in academic and industrial settings.
Stage 2
Applied and Environmental Biotechnology
This module focuses on applying biotechnology to minimise the impact of pollution on natural ecosystems. It addresses pollution control technologies, which are often reliant on the natural ability of organisms to degrade or immobilise pollutants to achieve remediation of contaminated sites. The module is also directed towards novel alternatives to traditional technologies, including microbial insecticides and fertilisers, and the development of transgenic plants. You will discuss molecular methods for assessing biodiversity in detail, as will methods of exploiting environmental biodiversity to develop new industrial processes and new forms of pollution control.
Biomanufacturing
This module will provide you with a qualitative and quantitative background to microbial, eukaryotic and enzymatic reaction systems as encountered in industrial processing or waste stream treatment. From providing a grounding in microbial physiology, types of reactor systems are described and analysed in terms of their operation. You will be introduced to fundamental concepts mass and energy techniques and consider downstream processing in detail. Model prokaryotic and eukaryotic production systems are also described.
Project Management and Enterprise
This module is designed to equip you with the necessary skills to successfully project manage new product developments focusing on project management skills and processes, quality assurance issues, new product development processes and statistical analysis techniques. It provides you with an opportunity to develop a project plan for a programme of research based on scientific literature, with particular reference to key concepts such as innovation, enterprise and originality. This fundamental project management basis is interlinked with developing an understanding of entrepreneurial best practices to enable you to transfer your ideas into the commercial arena. This element of the module will focus on intellectual property rights, legal, regulatory and ethical issues, business start up processes and will include an element of foresight thinking.
Stage 3
Research Project
This is the culmination of the programme of studies. You will undertake a challenging problem related substantially to your discipline. The project is linked where possible to an industrial or external partner organisation, which may even host your work and substantially direct the activity. Where this is not possible, a real or simulated real problem may be chosen as subject for the work. It is, however, expected that even where the problem is simulated or hypothetical, it will be treated as if real. The project outcomes project should be at a publishable standard.
