Food Security

Several optional courses run in March. The Molecular Lab Skills course enables students to become familiar with fundamental methods in molecular biology and involves over 40 hours of laboratory and computer-based sessions. Assessment of this course involves writing a diary explaining what was done in the laboratory and taking a written test.

Another molecular biological course is Omic Technologies, which is a lecture and computer-based course on the broad applications of proteomic, transcriptomic and metabolomic methods. Students who take this course write a project proposal involving the use of one or more of these technologies.

A further optional course that runs in March is Crop Biotechnology Applications. This course explains how modern breeding methods and transgenic technologies can address problems in crop production, including producing disease resistant and stress tolerant crop varieties. Several of the lectures are given by visiting speakers from the James Hutton Institute, which is a leading UK research institute involved in various aspects of crop production. For the assessment, students produce a poster on a selected topic in crop production and discuss their poster with the assessors.

Students interested in crop production can also take a course in Plant Genetic Engineering, which focuses on methods involved in stable genetic modification of plants. Normally this is a 1-week practical course, but no lab work was possible this year because of restrictions resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, students submitted an online report for their assessment.

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First published: 21 May 2020