Course Catalogue

Research Skills for Life Sciences BIOL5353

  • Academic Session: 2026-27
  • School: School of Medicine Dentistry and Nursing
  • Credits: 10
  • Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
  • Typically Offered: Semester 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: No
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No
  • Curriculum For Life: No

Short Description

This course will provide students with basic laboratory skills including; pipetting; molecular techniques; basic tissue culture for downstream applications; simple cellular assays and molecular pathology. Students will also be provided with training in collating results, statistics, data interpretation and designing a research project.

Timetable

This course consists of lectures and practical lab sessions which will take place in semester 2.

Requirements of Entry

None

Excluded Courses

None

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

Lab report (1500 words approx.) - 70%

Groupwork - 20%

Presentation - 10%

Course Aims

The aim of this course is to:

■ Expose students to and provide them with the opportunity to develop generic laboratory skills

■ Help students design and prepare for their research project

■ Provide students with the opportunity to perform experiments and subsequently analyse, interpret and present the data generated.

■ Synthesise data and formulate a scientific lab report.

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Critically evaluate the basis of laboratory protocols for research methods. 

2. Gain experience in fundamentals of molecular lab skills.

3. Critically discuss a workflow design for generating a sequencing data set.

4. Critically discuss and evaluate the results of sequencing data sets.

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

No exceptions