MSc in Protein Science and Biotechnology

The MSc degree programme was established to meet the clear needs of academia and industry in the post genomic era. This degree is specifically aimed at giving students in-depth understanding of the structure-function relationship of proteins and the techniques used to produce and characterize them.

Students who are selected for the degree will undertake 120 study points (equivalent of two years) of studies. These studies are designed to maximise hands on individual training in modern state of the art techniques and methodologies while providing a solid groundwork in theoretical aspects of the field. Around half of the degree involves integration of students into different research groups, finally cumulating in a 6 month research project.

The degree is taught in a highly international department that has won national awards for teaching quality. The degree is flexible and allows the students to specialize in the aspects of protein science and biotechnology which will most benefit their future career. The programme is particularly aimed at people going into research and former students have been very successful in finding PhD positions in Finland and abroad.

The degree programme includes, but is not limited to, studies in molecular biology, protein chemistry, biocomputing, bioinformatics, protein folding, systems biology, structural studies by x-ray crystallography and NMR, courses on other advanced methodologies (see below), mini-projects and the final research project. All projects are carried out in active well-funded research groups.

As an example of one course in the degree programme:

Biochemical methodologies II: This course comprises of 11 hours of lectures, 8 hours of exercises and 3 weeks of practical work. Students will work on an individual basis to characterise a unique mutant of a protein they have previously made (molecular biology II) and purified (protein chemistry II). The characterization will include circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy, sub-second kinetics by stopped-flow and quenched-flow, mass spectrometric analysis by ES-MS and MALDI-tof, basic proteomics, microcalorimetry and surface plasmon resonance. The course write up requires a cross-comparison between results obtained on different mutants.

Why study in Oulu?

Selection process

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