Laboratory Skills module (BM40035)

Laboratory skills refer to the hands-on practical application of the techniques required when you work effectively and safely in a scientific laboratory setting.

These skills are essential for activities such as:

• conducting experiments
• analysing data
• ensuring accurate and reliable results

You will gain an understanding of basic laboratory techniques. These will be essential for your understanding of the scientific literature you will study throughout your course.

You will also get experience in sterile and non-sterile liquid handling. You will also get experience in a variety of common practical techniques. These include mammalian cell culture, PCR reactions and Western blotting.

This will help you to understand the scientific literature. It will also prepare you for the BMSc research project in Semester 2.

What you will learn

In this module, you will

• become familiar with various liquid handling techniques, concentrations, dilutions, and solution-making
• appreciate the importance of sterile technique, using tissue culture as an example.
• gain hands-on experience with various techniques used to detect the presence of a protein or mRNA within cells
• learn to maintain a laboratory notebook to record your experimental findings

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• understand some everyday techniques used within a research laboratory.
• have a good grasp of sterile and non-sterile liquid handling and some basic molecular techniques.
• perform basic practical techniques and interpret data
• present the data in written summaries and in graphical form
• solve subject-specific problems

Assignments / assessment

• Submission of laboratory notebook (20%)
  • week 11, Semester 1
• Unseen exam (80%)
  • week 13, Semester 1

Teaching methods / timetable

• face-to-face laboratory-based practical teaching
  • You will typically spend either a half day or full day per week studying Laboratory skills, throughout Semester 1
• online access to lectures, reading material and other content to support face-to-face learning