Teaching and learning

The Computational Cell Biophysics MRes is designed as an inclusive programme with a strong research culture and employs a wide variety of teaching and learning methods to suit a diverse student intake.

Modules and Assessments

The 120-credit MRes Laboratory-Based Research Project in Biophysics is integral to the MRes. It is designed to give students an immersive and realistic experience of research science and to equip them with the necessary skills required to obtain and complete a PhD. Each project is co-supervised by two scientists, one from physical sciences and one from biological sciences. Students attend laboratory meetings for both research groups throughout the programme, thus increasing their exposure to different research environments and groups of scientists.

Students have two experienced programme tutors – one in the Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology (LMCB) and one from the Institute for the Physics of Living Systems (IPLS/Physics), who meet with the students regularly throughout the programme.

The two core modules Research Techniques in Cell Biology and Biophysics and Computational Cell Biophysics include the following teaching and learning methods:

Lectures: Students will learn through research-led education from world-renowned interdisciplinary scientists principally from the LMCB, IPLS, Physics and Maths. Lectures are face-to-face and will be supplemented by Independent Study.

Online Exercises: Computer-based exercises have been designed to support and extend the students' understanding of the topics presented within the module in a flexible, student-centred fashion. Students can work at their own pace, fitting this aspect of their study around their laboratory research projects.

Presentation and Feedback: A key component of Computational Cell Biophysics involves students presenting the results of their weekly exercises or research questions to the class in a dedicated 2-hour ‘feedback session’. This student-led teaching method trains students in teamwork, communication, presentation skills, and the ability to provide and receive constructive peer feedback.

Workshops and Tutorials: The number of students in workshops or tutorials is kept small to ensure everyone receives the attention, opportunity to ask questions, and support they need in a calm environment.

Facility Visits: Lectures/tutorials will be coupled with expert-led tours of some of UCL’s state-of-the-art research facilities.

Research Department Seminars: Using research department seminars as teaching and learning tools exposes students to ongoing, current, scientific research performed and presented by researchers of international renown.

Assessment types within the MRes programme are varied and depend, to some extent, on the optional 30-credit module(s) chosen by the student. For the compulsory components of the MRes, the Laboratory-Based Research Project in Biophysics, Research Techniques in Cell Biology and Biophysics and Computational Cell Biophysics, assessments are designed to build on previous work and to become more challenging (in content or experience) during the MRes programme.

Assessments include:

1. A mini-grant application describing the research project.
2. A project write-up in the format of a research paper. The student's co-supervisors decide on the journal most appropriate for the research project undertaken. The student then writes their master's thesis, in the form of a submission to that journal. This requires reading, understanding, and following the journal's ‘Instructions to Authors’ and demands writing quality, figures, and diagrams of publication quality.
3. An assessed laboratory meeting within the MRes host laboratory.
4. Oral presentations for Computational Cell Biophysics, based on an online exercise, are given before a small group of lecturers and students. For the MRes Laboratory-Based Research Project in Biophysics, presentations are delivered before a departmental audience.
5. A ‘News & Views’ type article on a research seminar i.e. a short (800–900 words) journalistic type news report that makes clear the advance being discussed, and communicates a sense of excitement, but provides a critical evaluation of the research concerned.
6. A critical and comparative review of a research technique in Biophysics (2000 words), for a general non-specialist audience, that highlights recent research.
7. An authoritative, comprehensive, and systematic review in the form of a ‘Current Opinion’ in Cell Biology article. Written to help specialists keep up to date with a clear and readable synthesis on a Biophysics theme.
8. Online coding exercises (Computational Cell Biophysics). Feedback on student presentations of the online exercises will serve as formative assessments to help students with the preparation of the module’s summative assessment.
9. Data analysis exercises.
10. Website design. A collaborative formative assessment in which students researching the same theme construct a webpage on their topic of choice.

Students take three compulsory and two optional modules. These run for ten weeks and typically have four hours of time in lectures/workshops per week with a further six hours of independent study.