Personalised Medicine with optional placement year - BSc (Hons)

Overview

Personalised Medicine gives you the skills to create the right treatment, for the right person, at the right time.

Summary

Study Personalised Medicine at Ulster University in the United Kingdom.

Personalised Medicine (also known as stratified medicine or precision medicine) is at the cutting edge of a new era in healthcare.

By learning how genes, lifestyle and the environment influence disease and affect the success of treatments, we can understand which treatments are best for each patient. Personalised Medicine involves discovering biomarkers (such as genes or proteins) that can determine who is at risk of developing a disease, how severe the disease will be and who will respond better to one therapy versus another, revolutionising how quickly patients receive effective treatment and transforming the efficiency of healthcare.

Personalised Medicine draws on molecular biology, data analytics and clinical practice to streamline healthcare, identifying the right treatment, for the right person, at the right time.

Our course is taught by a team of experienced and active research scientists, with contributions from industry experts and hospital doctors. Our course received 100% overall satisfaction in the 2019 National Student Survey and 90% of graduates were in full time work or study within 6 months of graduation.

To learn more about our course, watch our video here.

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The Personalised Medicine BSc Hons is a three-year, full-time course (or four years including placement in third year).

In year one students study six modules that establish a strong foundation in topics such as physiology, cell biology, immunology, data analytics and the omics (genomics, proteomics and metabolomics).

Year two consists of six modules that develop your expertise further, with deeper data analytics and new informatics skills and the exploration of pharmacogenomics, DNA sequencing and the governance of clinical trials.

An optional placement year is available in year three that provides a wide range of opportunities for students to experience professional practice and to develop project management skills in an industrial, hospital or university environment.

Final year provides essential experience of neurology, clinical decision making, healthcare economics and the opportunity to complete of a research project (in one of data analysis, clinical science or basic science) with one of our active research groups.

This course will give you an in-depth understanding of disease systems, molecular pharmacology, genetic and proteomic biomarker discovery and validation, bioinformatics and data analytics applied to large patient and omic datasets ('big data').

You will exit this course with a highly sought-after combination of expertise in biomedicine, bioinformatics and data analytics and will be well-equipped to become part of a rapidly expanding workforce on the cutting edge of scientific and medical progress. You will be well positioned for a career in research, the health service, and the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries.

The programme incorporates professional skills development in collaboration with a dedicated Industrial Liaison Committee, comprising over 30 industrial partners located throughout the UK, Ireland and the US, including companies like Randox Laboratories, Almac Diagnostics, GlaxoSmithKline and Aridhia.

Your future career will undoubtly improve patients quality of life through the development of better healthcare and smarter technologies to treat and manage diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, neurological disorders, cancer or immune disease.

BSc Personalised Medicine is delivered by a research active lecturing team, all with PhDs in relevant subject areas and with professional body recognition.

More widely, the University employs over 1,000 suitably qualified and experienced academic staff - 59% have PhDs in their subject field and many have professional body recognition.

Courses are taught by staff who are Professors (25%), Readers, Senior Lecturers (18%) or Lecturers (57%).

We require most academic staff to be qualified to teach in higher education: 82% hold either Postgraduate Certificates in Higher Education Practice or higher. Most academic staff (81%) are accredited fellows of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) - the university sector professional body for teaching and learning. Many academic and technical staff hold other professional body designations related to their subject or scholarly practice.

The profiles of many academic staff can be found on the Universitys departmental websites and give a detailed insight into the range of staffing and expertise. The precise staffing for a course will depend on the department(s) involved and the availability and management of staff. This is subject to change annually and is confirmed in the timetable issued at the start of the course.

Occasionally, teaching may be supplemented by suitably qualified part-time staff (usually qualified researchers) and specialist guest lecturers. In these cases, all staff are inducted, mostly through our staff development programme First Steps to Teaching. In some cases, usually for provision in one of our out-centres, Recognised University Teachers are involved, supported by the University in suitable professional development for teaching.

Figures correct for academic year 2019-2020.

Careers & opportunities

Graduate employers

Graduates from this course are now working for:

• Genomics Medicine Ireland
• Fusion Antibodies
• Health and Social Care Trust (HSC) NI
• Randox
• NI Clinical research - Royal Hospital
• Analytics Engines
• Bio Search

Job roles

With this degree you could become:

• Research Science
• NHS Laboratories
• Industrial Science
• Data Analytics
• Clinical Trial Management
• Policy Making
• Software Development

Career options

Your future

The Personalised Medicine course was created in response to demand from science and industry for graduates with a multidisciplinary skill set. Our Industrial Liaison Committee provides us with continual feedback to ensure that the skills of our graduates align critically with the needs of science and industry.

You will exit this course with a highly sought after combination of expertise in disease pathology, laboratory techniques, bioinformatics and data analytics. You will be equipped to become part of a rapidly expanding workforce on the cutting edge of scientific and medical progress. You will be well positioned for a career in research, the health service, or the pharmaceutical or diagnostics industries.

Your future career will improve the quality of life of patients by contributing to the provision of better healthcare and smarter technologies that treat and manage diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, neurological disorders, cancer or immune disease.

Work placement / study abroad

An optional placement year is available in the third year of study.

The placement provides a wide range of opportunities for students to experience professional practice and undertake scientifically and commercially relevent project work in an industrial, hospital or university environment.

Students benefit by greatly improving their practical abilities, time management, organisational and interpersonal skills, project management skills and by starting to develop their network of professional contacts. These factors all help to improve employability.

Apply directly

Next steps if you are applying directly:

1. find your course
2. check you meet the University’s General Entrance Requirements and any course-specific requirements
3. If your first language is not English, check you meet the English language requirements for your given course