Module manager: Dr Anastasia Zhuravleva
Email: A.Zhuravleva@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2026/27
Entry into year 3 (Level 6) of an MBiol degree programme offered by the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology
| BIOL3399 | Extended Research Project Preparation |
This module is not approved as a discovery module
This module allows you to build on your previous learning through an interdisciplinary, team-based research project addressing a real-world biomedical problem. With support from academic supervisors and research facilities staff, you will work with peers and active researchers to design and carry out a multidisciplinary project, analysing and integrating data from multiple experimental techniques. You will build key research skills, learn to work confidently in multidisciplinary teams, communicate your results clearly, and analyse complex data. This will prepare you for your final-year project and future careers in research, industry, or further study.
The aim of this module is to help students engage with real, up-to-date research in their discipline by designing, carrying out, and presenting a team-based research project. Students will apply and build upon the knowledge and skills developed earlier in their programme while working collaboratively with peers and academic experts using a range of scientific techniques.
Through this process, students will develop and enhance key competencies, including research skills, professional behaviours, and effective teamwork. The outcomes of the project will be communicated through a group report, written in the format of a scientific manuscript, and through oral presentations delivered to peers from other project teams and teaching staff. This will require students to clearly explain and contextualise their work for audiences with diverse scientific expertise.
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. Apply and integrate knowledge and skills gained earlier in their programme to generate, analyse, and interpret complex multidisciplinary datasets relevant to the discipline.
2. Critically evaluate experimental results in the context of current scientific literature, identifying limitations, sources of error, and potential future directions.
3. Recognise and apply health and safety and ethical considerations as appropriate.
Skills Learning Outcomes
1. Work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team, demonstrating professional behaviours, shared responsibility, and constructive engagement.
2. Communicate research outcomes effectively in a group report written in the format of a scientific manuscript and through oral presentations tailored to audiences with diverse scientific expertise.
3. Apply digital and information literacy to source, manage, and presenting data and information accurately and responsibly.
This module will provide you with advanced experimental planning skills required in research and in employment in the pharmaceutical and other industries. You will work in teams to carry out a mini-project in molecular biology. You will learn how to work co-operatively to plan your experiments around other commitments, and to communicate effectively members of both your own and other team. Your teamwork will require problem solving both as individuals and as a group, and overall you will gain valuable transferable skills appreciated by employers.
Students will undertake a scientific investigation that requires project planning, the selection and adaptation of experimental protocols, the execution of laboratory and computer-based work, the interpretation of experimental data, literature searching, reading and reviewing and report (manuscript) writing. The scientific investigation will combine multiple experimental approaches and introduce students to major research facilities.
The scientific investigation will commence with basic laboratory methods, such as the expression of the cloned gene and purification of the encoded product. The protein may then be characterised by SPR, NMR, CD, MS, and other biophysical techniques as appropriated. For those students with interests leaning towards cell biology rather than molecular biology, the protein of interest may be tagged with a fluorescent marker such as GFP to allow cellular localisation by confocal microscopy, and perhaps FAC sorting. Students will work as teams of 4-5 students and learn how to work co-operatively and communicate effectively members of both their own and other team. Individual students will be expected to perform experiments and analyse the data that is collected. Each student team will be assigned to a project supervisor who will meet students regularly to discuss the progress their have made. Facility managers and lead academics will provide introduction to facilities and underlying principles, and assist with data interpretation. An academic will co-ordinate the activities outlined above.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supervision | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Lectures | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Seminars | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Practicals | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| Practicals | 8 | 6 | 48 |
| Seminar | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Private study hours | 130 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 70 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
This includes associated reading, project planning, analysis of experimental data, writing of results.
Each group of students will have a minimum of two hours of meetings with their project supervisor over the course of the project (semester 1). These meetings will provide structured discussion and formative feedback on the project experience, experimental progress, presentation of the results, and any developing outputs or outcomes. Prior to each one-hour meeting, students will submit a short formative group report to support focused discussion. These meetings will help students to reflect on and better understand individual experiments in the context of the overall project. Students are expected to reflect on the feedback provided during and after each meeting and apply it, where appropriate, to the ongoing research project. To support effective supervision, each student will complete a Project Supervision Meeting Record form prior to each meeting, summarising their recent work and identifying discussion points. These forms will be used by supervisors to monitor progress throughout the research project.
During the experimental weeks (semester 1), students will have access to multiple data analysis workshops and drop-in sessions, providing opportunities for guidance on data analysis and interpretation. Additional sessions towards the end of the experimental period will offer informal feedback on data analysis and the presentation of results.
Further formative feedback will be provided through peer and academic input during oral presentations (Sem 2), enabling students to reflect on and improve their data presentation and interpretation for inclusion in the final report.
In addition, students are expected to hold regular weekly group meetings, during which they will discuss results and provide constructive feedback to one another on data analysis and interpretation.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | Project report | 60 |
| Oral Presentation | Oral presentations and Project Execution | 40 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
The coursework includes individual and group assessed components with an overall breakdown of Individual marks: 60% *Group marks: 40% as follows: All Students within a group of 4–5 will submit a single group report. The Introduction and Discussion sections will be marked as a group submission (30% of overall module mark), while a selected, student-specific Results section will be marked as an individual component (30% of the overall module mark). Within the same groups, students conduct a single oral presentation marked as a group submission (10% of the overall module mark) and complete a individual student-specific project execution form that includes an opportunity to report any unequal contribution submitted before the assessment submission deadline (30% of the overall module mark)
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 30/04/2026
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