The MSc Microbial Biotechnology comprises of the seven modules below in which the project is carried out for the last 6 months, whereas for the MRes the project runs for the whole year and students do the Research Methods & IT and Business & Bioethics modules plus others to make up a final value of 30CP taught modules, such as Current Topics in Medical and Food Microbiology or the two 15 CP modules Trends in Microbial Biotechnology and Enzyme Technology and Biocatalysis .

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• Current Topics in Medical and Food Microbiology
• Trends in Microbial Biotechnology
• Microbial Physiology and Fermentation Technology
• Enzyme Technology and Biocatalysis
• Research Methods and IT
• Business and Bioethics
• Project; CP value depends on MSc or MRes route

The aim of this module is to investigate the current trends in the understanding of infectious diseases and the problems of food safety, including pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment and control. The module links information delivered in other modules in particular Microbial Physiology & Fermentation Technology and Trends in Microbial Biotechnology.

Subjects chosen for further study:
• Pathogenicity of microbes; molecular basis of pathogenicity, microbial toxins, TSE, emerging pathogens
• Diagnosis of infectious diseases; molecular diagnostic techniques in food and medical microbiology
• Treatment of infectious diseases; problems of resistance to antimicrobial agents, new antimicrobial agents and their evaluation
• Control of infectious diseases; HACCP, microbial risk assessment, probiotics, vaccines

This module is an advanced study of microbial molecular biology and the production of microbial products for industrial and pharmaceutical use.

Subjects chosen for further study:
• Microbial genetics; bacterial & viral genetics, horizontal gene transfer, application of genomic and proteomic research, bioinformatics
• Industrial and pharmaceutical applications of micro-organisms; antibiotics, amino acids (etc), hormones, microbial pesticides.

Microbial growth kinetics, understanding the characteristics and stability of recombinant organisms, and the adaptation of micoorganisms to extreme environments. Detailed aspects of fermenter culture maintenance including mass transfer of oxygen in stirred and air-lift fermenters. The principles of process scale-up and the importance of bioremediation.

Commercial application of enzymes; Enzyme purification and the theoretical background to enzyme activity in free, immobilised or whole cell preparations and in extreme environments such as at high temperature and in non-aqueous reactors. Bioreactor design, future industrial applications of biocatalysts, modification of enzymes as diagnostic tools and biosensors.

Use of word processors, scientific databases and software packages for statistical analysis of data. Planning, writing and oral presentation of a research proposal on a specific biotechnology topic. Critical appraisal of scientific papers.

This module is in two parts; 'Business' which covers starting up a company, marketing, and business plans and 'Ethics' which is concerned with issues of biological research such as use of animal models and genetically engineered organisms will be investigated. This module is of increasing importance in industry and was written in response to industry requirements.

The course is completed with a six month laboratory based research project. This may be carried out either in the Dept. of Life Sciences or another European academic or industrial biotechnology research laboratory, subject to approval by the Course Team. Assessment is by a research report (20,000 words max) and a poster presentation of the experimental findings.