Course summary

Lancaster’s MSc Biomedical Science by Research offers you an exciting opportunity to undertake and manage your own research project, allowing you to gain valuable laboratory experience and forge important relationships in the professional sphere. Areas of research fall within, but are not limited to, the diverse biomedical portfolio of our academic staff - global health, cancer biology, diseases of the brain, infectious disease, drug discovery, biology of ageing and biomedical ethics. Our 12-month programme provides you with the knowledge and technical skills to produce sustained and original work - work that will underpin progression in your chosen career. At the core of this is your independent research project, in which you will produce new and original data to make a solid contribution to the scientific community. Our degree format includes nine months of full-time laboratory work as part of an established world-leading research team, directed learning via our graduate training programme, and a three-month writing up period. The dissertation, and a viva voce assessment, will showcase your knowledge and understanding of your chosen research area whilst also demonstrating your ability to critically evaluate existing literature. You will be supported by your supervisors at every stage: identifying gaps in your knowledge base (and working together to fill them), helping you to develop practical skills, increasing your data analysis skills, and guiding the writing up of your dissertation. As well as developing intellectual, practical and transferable skills, Lancaster’s MSc Biomedicine by Research will endow you with authoritative knowledge on a specific subject. You will gain a practical understanding of advanced research techniques, and develop competence in applying these to the development and management of your own research project. Our graduates are highly-regarded for their communication skills, analytical ability, confidence in critical evaluation, and their competence in interpreting data in a biomedical context. This opens doors to careers in the NHS, industry, government and charities. Our MSc programme also provides an excellent grounding for further academic research, such as undertaking a PhD. If you thrive on autonomous learning and you’ve identified an area of research that you wish to pursue, we are ready to hear from you. Please contact one of our research team leaders, whose interests align with your own, to discuss the proposed focus of your research undertaking. For more general enquiries, or if you are unsure about your preferred area of research, please contact the Director of MSc by Research, Dr Ed Parkin.