Human Physiology in Relation to Medicine

The course will:

• provide you with advanced study of specialist areas such as cellular physiology, neuroscience and integrative physiology, broadly reflecting the research interests of the teaching staff
• require you to undertake either a literature or laboratory project, in the context of studying experimental design and practice
• provide opportunities to develop competency in transferable skills, including communication skills, problem solving, experimental design, data and information retrieval, integration, analysis and interpretation, using statistics and computing/information technology as appropriate
• provide appropriate support and guidance
• provide high quality learning resources to support the objectives of the course.

Research projects

You can apply for, or may be offered, projects in any area of Biomedical Science (eg human physiology, pharmacology, neuroscience) but here are some titles of projects offered recently by members of the Physiology Programme team or undertaken by our intercalating students:

• Mechanisms of respiratory rhythm generation
• Mechanisms of acute/chronic pain and analgesia
• Trigeminal system and chronic oro-facial pain
• Nanotoxicity
• Cellular mechanisms associated with cardiac dysfunction
• Lipid regulation of cardiac myocyte function
• Cardia myocyte morphology and function
• Excitation-contraction coupling in diseased myocardium
• Computational analysis of arrhythmogenisis in virtual ventricular tissue
• Obesity: an epidemic
• Renal Physiology, Aquaporins & Water balance
• Molecular physiology and pharmacology of P2X and TRPM ion channels
• Structural basis of movement in living cells: molecular motors
• The genetic basis of neurological disorders
• Stem cell differentiation and development

Course structure

These are typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our Terms and conditions.

Modules Year 1

Compulsory modules

• Advanced Scientific Skills 20 credits
• Advanced Topics in Human Physiology II 20 credits
• Research Project in Biomedical Sciences 40 credits

For more information on typical modules, read Human Physiology in Relation to Medicine BSc in the course catalogue

Assessment

You are assessed in two ways. Depending on which modules you take, approximately two-thirds of your final mark will come from the module exams, which you will sit in January (semester 1 exam period) and May (semester 2 exam period). The remaining third of your final mark will come from course work during the year - including the research project.