Inflammation: Cellular and Vascular Aspects

Do you want to be part of the UK biomedical translational agenda? Do you have the skills to take molecular concepts and apply them to in vivo studies? Are you interested in finding out why inflammation is at the root of society's modern diseases such as heart disease and cancer? Do you think you might like to do a PhD but lack all the necessary skills? If these are some of your thoughts about your future, then this is the programme for you.

This course provides state-of-the-art practical training in modern molecular and cellular pharmacological techniques alongside their application to in vivo methods of pharmacological investigation of inflammatory and vascular disease mechanisms. The programme will deliver scientists adept in the crucial skillset needed for successful careers in UK Life sciences especially deeper phenotyping in vascular and inflammatory research, for example in rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, pulmonary hypertension, hypertension, arrhythmia, nephrology or cancer.

In particular this course is designed to provide a springboard for those individuals wishing to a PhD in this field of research.

Funding

The Medical Research Council (UK) annually funds five places on this programme, which includes a tax free stipend of £15,740 per annum. These MRC studentships are open to UK Nationals and EEA/Swiss migrant workers and will be awarded on a competitive basis.

Download:

• MRC-funded studentships information [ DOC 46KB ]
• BHF-funded studentships information [ DOC 47KB ]

Why study with us?

In the 2008 UK RAE our Medical School's research ranked amongst the top five in the UK and top in London. The William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) as part of the Medical School is the UK's largest pharmacological research institute with an international reputation for training talented scientists for success in in-vivo 'translational' research. In the 2008 UK RAE 65 per cent of research at the WHRI was rated as world leading or internationally excellent. It is upon these very strong foundations for translational research excellence that we offer this course. The WHRI embraces advances in the 'omic' specialties alongside an extremely strong portfolio of in vivo pharmacological research utilising cutting-edge in-vivo technologies (eg, live imaging/confocal/small animal PET-CT).

Facilities

The WHRI has extensive dedicated in vivo and molecular research facilities at the Charterhouse Square site, which has been extended recently with the opening of our £25m William Harvey Heart Centre which hosts international leaders in the fields of cardiac electrophysiology, conscious blood pressure monitoring, organ-selective T cell trafficking and models of pulmonary hypertension. The students will also benefit from the School's recent £700K investment in establishing 150m² of new WHRI state-of-the-art in-vivo confocal imaging capabilities and a video-conference bridge to major international in vivo centres that will be used to complement our seminar programme.

You will also have access to Queen Mary's comprehensive libraries including local facilities at St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Charterhouse Square site has recently refurbished student IT and cafeteria facilities.

Programme structure

The MRes is currently available for one year full-time study.

Students are assessed by oral critique of the literature; problem based learning group discussions and research project thesis.

In the first term students follow an initial three-month course of lectures, tutorials, problem based learning sessions (PBLs) and practicals to obtain a broad grounding in inflammation/vascular mechanisms, and to develop the necessary laboratory skills for conducting the project element of the programme which follows.

• The term is split up into generic skills (ie, writing and presentation skills, statistics, laboratory safety and critical analysis) and more specialised research skills.
• The students will have hands-on experience of research techniques in the form of practicals focussed on proteomics, molecular and biochemical methods and in vitro platelet and vascular function.
• Instruction in the form of practical demonstrations will include, intra-vital microscopy, blood pressure telemetry, pulmonary pressure determination, state-of-the-art imaging and echocardiography. These practical sessions will occur twice per week, one full day and one half day, in the first term. The students will also attend a series of lectures and seminars in inflammation, cancer and cardiovascular disease timetabled to co-ordinate with the practical sessions.

Together, the above components very well reflect the broad interdisciplinarity of the course across not only practical techniques in molecular, biochemical and in vivo methods but also across specialties for which inflammation has major relevance including cancer, cardiovascular and immune disease . In addition, many of those teaching on this course are clinical academics and therefore the course material will focus on the relevance of pre-clinical models to human disease and their utility in identifying novel therapeutics.

In the following two terms, students will apply a variety of techniques as part of an integrated research project under the guidance of an experienced academic supervisor from the pool of the internationally renowned faculty within our institution.

For more information:

See the William Harvey Research Institute website for more information.

Teaching and assessment

Teaching

• The course has three co-ordinators with whom the students will have considerable contact.
• There is timetabled contact time each day of the first term in the form of practicals, lectures, PBL and presentations sessions.
• The masters student:staff ratio for all of the teaching/practical components will not exceed 6:1.
• Supervisors for research projects will not have more than one masters student at any given time.
• Staff are invited to submit projects. These are then considered by the students who will then submit their choices. In the past we have been able to offer each student their first or second choice more than 95 per cent of the time.

Assessment

Assessment will be comprised of four parts:

1. Analysis and presentation of research papers (eight in total): 24%
2. PBL write ups (three PBLs to be written up in detail): 6%
3. Research project dissertation and viva: 60%
4. Presentation of project (30 minutes plus time for questions): 10%

The first two components of assessment will occur in the first term and will focus on aspects of generic skills formally through presentation, PBL scenario and critical assessment of scientific papers write-ups. The second two components will occur at the end of the final term.

Entry requirements

A minimum of an upper-second class honours degree in Biomedical science or a related discipline.

International applicants

Students from outside of the UK help form a global community here at Queen Mary. For detailed country specific entry requirements please visit the International section of our website. If your first language is not English, you must provide evidence of your English language proficiency. You can find details on our English language entry requirements here: www.qmul.ac.uk/international/languagerequirements

If you are unable to find the information you require, please contact the Admissions Office for assistance.

Career prospects

The programme will be of particular interest to those who wish to go on to conduct a PhD. In addition this masters will also provide exposure to the processes involved in biomedical research as well as providing a range of transferable skills including:

• Analytical and critical thinking
• Communication

Continuing onto further research

You will also be ideally placed to pursue further research whether that be at Queen Mary or at other institutions in the UK or globally. Over the past two years seven of the eight students who completed this MRes are doing PhDs and were awarded studentships to continue their studies within the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI).

Our links with industry

The School as a whole enjoys a diverse set of links with industry. Students will benefit from these links through our International seminar series and special lectures from well known figures in the field.

Careers support from Queen Mary

QM Careers provides careers information, advice and guidance to all students of the College on everything from choosing a career to finding work. We run employer events on campus, manage full and part-time vacancy information and offer one-to-one careers advice; practice interviews, CV checks, psychometric test preparation and lots more.

We are part of The Careers Group, University of London the largest careers service in the country, and we are accredited by the Matrix quality standard which assures quality of advice, information and guidance.