BB20025 Review

This is a very good module to practice and develop key molecular techniques important for lab-based placements and final year research projects. It is a week-intensive of labs before Semester 2 starts for which the lab report (completed in a given lab and demonstration booklet) is 100% of the module grade. It was really useful to be able to have a whole module completed in the week and then writing up the lab report wasn't bad so long as you understood the week and had taken away all the information you needed. This meant I had the time to focus on the other 4 modules I was taking that semester.

Overall, the investigation itself was well-organised however the first days of the lab in my group (the cohort is split in half depending on how many take the module) felt quite disorganised with a lot of confusion but over the course of the week, this improved and the demonstrators were helpful in answering questions about the work. The investigation was also interesting - identifying genes in mouse embryonic tissue with kruppel-type zinc finger protein motifs which are known to play important roles in development to eventually sequence and find potential human orthologues. The principle is that if these orthologous genes were previously uncharacterised, but were found to contain these motifs, it was likely they may have a role in development and therefore more investigation could take place.

I absolutely loved this unit! It was a really refreshing change, and meant that you got an entire module done in one week so one less exam to revise for in the summer!
This module is entirely practical. You work in pairs, and carry out a week long lab project commencing immediately after inter-semester break. Being in the lab for a week is not nearly as intimidating as it sounds, as there’s lots of help from demonstrators and senior lecturers that run the module. There’s a fair bit of waiting around for equipment and for reactions to run such as PCR/gels, however the course was overall well run and lots of fun. You do an individual practical report, consisting of a demonstration booklet (20%) which contained questions surrounding the use of different methods and practices used in the lab, and the physical report of your project itself (80%). The project was written up in the lab book and at the end there a small write up including a discussion section. There was also one computer practical. The written report didn’t take too much time considering it was 80% of the module, but I would suggest making notes throughout the week of labs stating why you’re carrying out a certain part of the experiment, and how it relates to your overall aim, as it made writing it up much easier 3 weeks later when you may have forgotten what you did in the lab!
Overall I’d really recommend taking this unit, not only does it mean you have one less exam, but it was something a bit different and lots of fun!