This course provides students with the fundamental knowledge and skills necessary to appraise new advances in the field of modern biotechnology.

This option is assigned to block S2-A. There are normally 3 hours of contact on Mondays, as arranged. 

None

The course will be assessed by a 3-hour examination (100%).

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course aims to: 

■ Explore the key conceptual, technical and ethical issues in modern Biotechnology; 

■ Develop core knowledge and understanding required for biotechnological applications. 

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

■ Discuss the current approaches and technologies used in modern biotechnology; 

■ Discuss the strategies and principles used for the production of important biotechnological commodities; 

■ Evaluate the advantages and limitations of the approaches used in modern biotechnology; 

■ Evaluate the relative merits of using different strategies to meet particular biotechnological demands.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.