MSc Biological Sciences
This 12-month course has been designed to build on your knowledge and skills from your undergraduate degree, training you in high-level scientific skills, ready for you to make a difference in the biomedicine sector.
Biomedical science is about deepening our understanding of the human body in health and disease, helping to develop treatments that can save and improve lives. Because of the broad nature of the subject, this research-led masters course will expose you to a wide range of both practical and lecture modules spanning cell biology, developmental biology, neuroscience, and stem cell biology. This breadth gives you the flexibility to choose to study the modules that interest you most, mastering key techniques as you specialise in an area aligned to your career goals.
During your practical modules, you’ll receive training in the techniques that are used in biomedical research including the study of model organisms, advanced tissue culture techniques, protein detection methodologies, and microscopy. You’ll learn how to recreate and model human disease in the laboratory in order to study the underlying molecular mechanisms, and how to visualise, in real-time, how embryos develop into fully-formed, complex organisms before using these to study our own development.
Your theoretical lecture modules will teach you about topics including the clinical use of stem cells, cancer biology, diseases associated with ion channel mutations, and the development of novel therapeutics. You'll also begin training to gain the transferable skills that every professional scientist needs, such as scientific writing and presentation skills, research ethics, statistical analysis and the use of R, and scientific literature analysis.
The biggest part of the course is the research project. You’ll spend six months embedded within one of our internationally recognised research laboratories, developing your research skills in an area of biomedical science that matches your future career aspirations. We offer a wide range of projects where you could be working in our Wolfson Light Microscopy Facility, investigating the subcellular location of disease proteins, carrying out zebrafish CRISPR knock-outs, or working within our RNAi Screening Facility using pharmaceutical industry automation methods for drug screening. Our research groups have transplanted stem cells to restore hearing in mammals, and offered hope in the search for treatments for motor neuron disease. It’s research like this that you’ll be able to contribute to at Sheffield.
Example past research projects include:
Often, research carried out by our MSc students during their MSc research projects forms the basis of publications in peer-reviewed journals. Here’s an example past paper including student authors:
This 12-month course has been designed to build on your knowledge and skills from your undergraduate degree, training you in high-level scientific skills, ready for you to make a difference in the biomedicine sector.
Biomedical science is about deepening our understanding of the human body in health and disease, helping to develop treatments that can save and improve lives. Because of the broad nature of the subject, this research-led masters course will expose you to a wide range of both practical and lecture modules spanning cell biology, developmental biology, neuroscience, and stem cell biology. This breadth gives you the flexibility to choose to study the modules that interest you most, mastering key techniques as you specialise in an area aligned to your career goals.
During your practical modules, you’ll receive training in the techniques that are used in biomedical research including the study of model organisms, advanced tissue culture techniques, protein detection methodologies, and microscopy. You’ll learn how to recreate and model human disease in the laboratory in order to study the underlying molecular mechanisms, and how to visualise, in real-time, how embryos develop into fully-formed, complex organisms before using these to study our own development.
Your theoretical lecture modules will teach you about topics including the clinical use of stem cells, cancer biology, diseases associated with ion channel mutations, and the development of novel therapeutics. You'll also begin training to gain the transferable skills that every professional scientist needs, such as scientific writing and presentation skills, research ethics, statistical analysis and the use of R, and scientific literature analysis.
The biggest part of the course is the research project. You’ll spend six months embedded within one of our internationally recognised research laboratories, developing your research skills in an area of biomedical science that matches your future career aspirations. We offer a wide range of projects where you could be working in our Wolfson Light Microscopy Facility, investigating the subcellular location of disease proteins, carrying out zebrafish CRISPR knock-outs, or working within our RNAi Screening Facility using pharmaceutical industry automation methods for drug screening. Our research groups have transplanted stem cells to restore hearing in mammals, and offered hope in the search for treatments for motor neuron disease. It’s research like this that you’ll be able to contribute to at Sheffield.
Example past research projects include:
Often, research carried out by our MSc students during their MSc research projects forms the basis of publications in peer-reviewed journals. Here’s an example past paper including student authors:
