Course structure
The Precision Medicine (Cancer) MSc is typically completed full-time in one year, but can be taken part-time over two years. The teaching approach integrates systems, enquiry and case-based learning and is structured to include both taught modules, a placement and a project.
To be awarded the MSc, you must obtain 180 M-level credits: 120 credits from taught and subject-specific modules, and 60 credits through the completion of the project.
Modules in detail
Cancer: Bench to bedside
This module will cover a range of topics, from laboratory science to translational medicine. It offers a wealth of information from cancer diagnosis to treatments, to living with cancer.
You’ll learn the fundamental biological processes underlying cancer, develop an understanding of the therapeutic opportunities afforded by the known mechanisms underlying cancer biology and gain insights into patients’ trajectory from diagnosis to treatment to remission.
You’ll learn to evaluate the scientific evidence relating to the causes, mechanisms and consequences of cancer; critically discuss cutting-edge and novel cancer therapeutics, and assess and review tools used for cancer research, diagnosis and treatment selection.
You’ll cover topics including: biology of cancer; risk factors and diagnosis; radiotherapies; cancer therapeutics; immune therapies; psychosocial oncology; in vivo and in vitro cancer models; and bioinformatics for cancer biologists.
Omics for Diseases: Theory, practice and applications
You’ll study the theory, practice and applications of omics at the genomic, proteomic and metabolomic level, and gain in-depth knowledge about the use of omics and their applications in health and disease research.
You’ll study the technical aspects of omics strategies, gain insights into the types of omics currently on the market, and the use of omics technologies in basic research, medicine and pharmaceutical sciences, for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of diseases. You’ll gain hands-on experience with genomics and proteomics datasets and assess the use of genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics in different applications.
Clinical Research Methods
You’ll develop your research skills and strategies through designing a research project proposal relevant to your specialist interest or professional practice. You’ll also learn about and apply relevant ethical and regulatory requirements.
Project
The project module mainly involves independent study, requiring you to collect and analyse your own data and report on your findings, but you will also have a project supervisor who will support and guide you throughout the academic year.
The types of projects vary and some may require ethical approval before they begin. Examples of projects that the course leader has supervised include:
- The role of stress on cancer metastasis to the bone
- Glucocorticoid antagonism on breast cancer metastasis to the brain
- Cortisol and cancer initiation
- ADRB2 polymorphisms and drug resistance in breast cancer.
Staff profile
Dr Melanie Flint, course leader
Dr Melanie Flint is a Reader in Cancer Research and is the leader of a stress and breast cancer program and section head for Therapeutics at the University of Brighton. She is currently co-leader of Brighton and Sussex Cancer Research Network and a member of the Cancer Translation Advisory Group Steering Committee.
Melanie trained in the Women’s Cancer Research Centre, at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and remains an Adjunct Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Pittsburgh. Her work is currently supported by Cancer Research UK, the Rosetrees Trust and the Boltini Trust. And her work on stress and cancer has been supported by National Institutes of Health, Team Verrico, Breast cancer Research Trust, Wendy Will Case Cancer Fund and the PA Breast Cancer Coalition’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Research Initiative.
Find out more about Dr Flint and her work.
Specialist facilities
Facilities available to students on this course include:
- dedicated molecular biology lab with access to qPCR equipment and dark room facility
- a specialist image analysis suite with electron microscopes, a confocal microscope, atomic force microscopes, and other general light and fluorescent imaging equipment
- a genomics/proteomics facility for analysis of genes and proteins using microarray platforms
- nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry.
Click to view a virtual tour of some of our facilities.