Specialist Laboratory Research Project

• Credit value: 60 credits at Level 6
• Convenor: Professor Katherine Thompson
• Assessment: a lab notebook (20%), 1000-word preliminary report (20%), poster with mini oral presentation (15%), 5000-word final report (30%) and 10-minute oral presentation (15%)

In this module you will have excellent training and education in core skills for scientists working in the molecular biosciences. This builds on the laboratory skills you have developed in the Level 4 and 5 modules and allows you to apply them in a new setting. You will undertake extensive hands-on practical work in the laboratory and will conduct in-depth research into the literature. You will have the chance to make your own decisions in the lab in deciding how experiments should be performed: what controls are necessary, how many replicates are required, etc.

Although the project is guided, it is not dictated. An academic member of staff will oversee all stages, but you will be required to use your scientific judgment to troubleshoot problems, analyse data sets and pool together results from a number of experiments to draw conclusions.

Indicative syllabus

• Planning laboratory work (including working safely in the laboratory)
• Keeping an acceptable lab notebook
• Intensive practical work including applications of:
• Protein expression, recovery and purification
• Protein assays to determine: i) the concentration of a protein solution, and ii) the melting temperature of different proteins
• Assays to determine the activity of an enzyme towards different substrates, and/or under different conditions
• Recovering information from relevant databases and using online tools to explore the effect of a specific novel mutation on a protein
• Visualisation and presentation of protein structures, and relating structure to activity

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

• explain the steps involved in recombinant protein expression and apply this knowledge, combined with good molecular biology and microbiology laboratory skills, to successfully obtain a sample of a recombinant protein
• utilise different methods of protein purification competently to recover and purify protein after expression in an E. coli host and analyse the results to evaluate the success of the expression and purification steps, suggesting steps which could be taken to improve the yield and purity of the protein
• use different protein assays to characterise a sample of protein, using appropriately selected controls, and correctly interpret the results, showing an awareness of the limitations of each assay, and place the results in the context of what was already known from the literature
• perform assays to reliably assess the activity of enzymes, showing appropriate selection of conditions and controls and an ability to analyse the data in an appropriate manner to draw valid conclusions
• independently use a variety of generic and subject-specific software packages and online resources (including databases) to retrieve complex data related to a specific topic in human health and disease; interrogate the data and information obtained in a manner that leads to valid conclusions
• communicate complex and detailed scientific information clearly and accurately via a variety of different forms including written reports, the production of scientific figures and figure captions, and oral presentations.