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Overview

The practical work will be carried out in a state of the art category 2 teaching/research laboratory. Tuition and experimental techniques are supported and enhanced via extensive use of audio/visual technology/tutorials and delivered by research active personal with extensive molecular experience and leaders of research groups focusing on medical-molecular research.

Practical work will employ the following techniques and methodologies

• Tissue culture growth and analysis of Human Cancer lines
• Extraction and purification of RNA from Human Cancer cells
• Fluorometric Quantitation, ‎Agarose gel and microfluidic chip analysis of RNA quality and quantity
• Reverse transcription cDNA synthesis
• Application of the Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for RQ-PCR analysis of cDNA, RT-PCR molecular cloning, and recombinant plasmid detection (colony PCR).
• Plasmid extraction from bacteria
• Restriction enzyme digestion and ligation cloning of PCR fragments into plasmid vectors
• Methods of growth and selection of recombinant plasmid transformed bacteria
• Extensive utilisation of gel electrophoresis for DNA and RNA analysis and purification of specific DNA fragments
• Introduction to and application of bioinformatic DNA/RNA sequence analysis software For student revision, lectures, tutorials and practical demonstrations are recorded using the Panopto system http://demo.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=22c80343-6d76-4897-a4ca-2aba23825b5f&__hstc=231909632.e27853f42ca4e0e56212d5cec3a4a123.1401833490769.1402501966808.1402505968645.16&__hssc=231909632.36.1402505968645&__hsfp=177871209

• Tissue culture growth and analysis of Human Cancer lines
• Extraction and purification of RNA from Human Cancer cells
• Fluorometric Quantitation, ‎Agarose gel and microfluidic chip analysis of RNA quality and quantity
• Reverse transcription cDNA synthesis
• Application of the Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for RQ-PCR analysis of cDNA, RT-PCR molecular cloning, and recombinant plasmid detection (colony PCR).
• Plasmid extraction from bacteria
• Restriction enzyme digestion and ligation cloning of PCR fragments into plasmid vectors
• Methods of growth and selection of recombinant plasmid transformed bacteria
• Extensive utilisation of gel electrophoresis for DNA and RNA analysis and purification of specific DNA fragments
• Introduction to and application of bioinformatic DNA/RNA sequence analysis software

Assessment Strategy

Threshold (50% / -C) Criterion 1: Knowledge and Comprehension (Subject Specific Expertise) Understanding: The ability to use knowledge in particular, limited contexts, not the capacity to develop or interconnect knowledge Knowledge: The basic foundation of effective learning. Demonstration of knowledge requires and utilizes the powers of memory and recall. Knowledge represents a database of information; facts, principles, ideas and arguments.

Good (-60 / -B) Criterion 2: Analysis, Evaluation & Synthesis (Critical thinking) Analysis: The capacity to dissect information, arguments & ideas. The ability & confidence to stand back & look for logical consistency, completeness, relevance & usefulness. To discover & investigate the basic structure of an idea, reveal hidden meanings, problems & issues. Evaluation: The ability to come to judgments, based upon a critical review of available facts, information & views. The separation of evidence supported facts from unsupported opinions. The use of intellectual problem solving: the willingness, desire & ability to select from competing solutions by systematic evaluation of alternatives. Synthesis: The ability to build on the component parts of an idea or argument in order to develop further ideas. The capacity to engage in constructive, critical assessment of ideas & arguments & appreciate their implication. Originality: To demonstrate & convey ‘self-synthesized’ unique, arguments & discussions.

Excellent (-A / 70%) Criterion 3: Application and Presentation Grade (Transferable skills) The ability to draw upon, and use appropriately, a wide range of knowledge and skills to address questions and issues. The knowledge involved is in part factual, but also includes ideas, concepts, principles, technical expertise or theories Presentation: Written and/or oral and information technology (IT) skills. Indicators include such things as logical structure, coherence and clarity of expression, spelling and grammar, and the use of ICT and numerical data. Where appropriate, also requires that sources are acknowledged and properly referenced and the ability to work effectively as a member of a team.

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate ability to fully process and critically analyse experimentally generated data

• Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the theories and practical methods of nucleic acid isolation, purification, quantity and quality analysis

• Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the theory and practical utilisation of restriction enzymes for molecular cloning

• Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the theory and practical utilisation of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for molecular cloning and DNA analysis

• Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge and understanding of transcription, reverse transcription and RNA transcripts

• Demonstrate master level abilities to prepare and present scientific reports and presentations, to specifically designated formats