| CODE | MDS3107 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Dissertation | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 26 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Faculty of Medicine and Surgery | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit will involve the student in designing and optimizing a particular research question related to a medical condition and then attempting to answer it via a series of experiments. This study unit is designed to give the undergraduate student the experience of working alongside clinical and scientific investigators in the course of approved programs in specific areas of clinical bio-medical science. The student, under appropriate supervision, shall be engaged in clinical data collection, sample collection and preservation / bio-banking under high standards of pre-analytical science and laboratory / experimental investigation. Study-unit Aims: - provide students with the practical means to address medical conditions with the relevant science base; - teach students how to extrapolate research questions from current knowledge; - introduce students to laboratory techniques and equipment; - give the students a learning experience in the conduct of research that is translatable between the clinic and the analytical or experimental laboratory; - create synergies between students and clinical investigators / bio-medical scientists. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - discuss the research questions arising in a specific medical topic; - explain mainstream laboratory techniques applied in current biomedical research; - to describe experiment design; - review the literature connected with the designated research; - ask significant questions arising from the literature review; - explain the development of clinical and experimental methods appropriate to provide meaningful answers; - discuss the findings in the context of the current state of the art and future developments. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Link medical knowledge to research proposal; - Formulate research questions; - Understand the operation of basic laboratory equipment; - Participate in experiment design; - Select the literature that supports the research questions; - Analyse the literature; - Draft a research proposal; - Collect clinical / health data; - Process samples and data; - Interpret (preliminary) results; - write a research project manuscript; - Present the research to a selected audience. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Weissman, S. (1999). CDNA preparation and characterization (Methods in enzymology 303). Academic Press. (Main Library General) - Pardee, A., & McClelland, M. (1999). Expression genetics : Differential display (BioTechniques update series). BioTechniques Books. (Main Library General) - Burgess, R., & Deutscher, M. (2009). Guide to protein purification(2nd ed., Methods in enzymology 463). Academic Press. (Main Library General) - Corthell, J. (2014). Basic molecular protocols in neuroscience : Tips, tricks, and pitfalls. https://www-sciencedirect-com.ejournals.um.edu.mt/science/book/9780128014615 Supplementary Readings: - Walters, N., Estridge, B., & Reynolds, A. (1990). Basic medical laboratory techniques (2nd ed.). Delmar. - Schena, M. (2003). Microarray analysis. Wiley-Liss. The student shall also be guided by the supervisors in reading the appropriate literature from current and past research level journals connected with the research programme. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-Requisite qualifications: Entry requirements for MD Course Pre-Requisite Study-units: All MD 2 study-units |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Dissertation | ||||||||
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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