Develop your research skills within biological and biomedical sciences
During this four-week summer school, you will attend seminars from world leading experts and perform experiments in our state-of-the-art laboratories.
You will also have the opportunity to improve your English writing skills and practise your presentation skills in an academic setting with your peers and Manchester academics.
This school will equip you with knowledge of cutting-edge science frontiers and technological advances in basic and biomedical sciences, as well as in modern medicine.
This experience will provide a firm foundation for those interested in pursuing a master's or PhD degree in life sciences or biomedical sciences in an international university.
Feedback from past students has unanimously recognised the high quality of the academic and social contents of the school. When asked which activity they enjoyed most, one student commented:
"The lab work, trips, everything! I wish I could come here for a master's course next year. It's wonderful."
On this page:
Talking science
Our programme includes innovative practical sessions teaching you why and how to communicate about science and health with broader audiences. These sessions will be led by experienced faculty from the MSc Science and Health Communication programme.
Social activities
Social activities will include a welcome reception and a farewell celebration (involving Manchester academics and students), as well as trips to local attractions.
What's included in the fee?
Fees are £3,000 and include tuition fees, accommodation and scheduled social events.
Programme details
About your schedule
The summer school is structured to provide you with a focused schedule based around one of the many areas of bioscience research at The University of Manchester.
You will have the opportunity to learn and expand your knowledge in biological and biomedical sciences, and to have first-hand experience of British culture.
A typical week will include lectures, practical laboratory activities, experimental design, and data analysis in small groups or pairs.
Areas of study
During each week of the summer school, you'll be assigned to one of the selected areas of biosciences research skill modules (RSM) from the following:
This module aims to introduce you to the laboratory techniques used in cancer signalling study.
You will perform drug treatments of two cancer cell lines, which are came from the same patient before and after relapse. After the drug treatments, you will extract the cellular proteins by performing cell lysis on those cells, and carry out SDS-PAGE gel, western blotting, and protein phosphorylation analyses for cancer signalling proteins (e.g. pERK, ERK and VINC).
You will also quantify the results and interpret which cells are sensitive to the drug treatment.
This RSM aims to introduce you to the laboratory techniques used in cell biology to study proteins and disease-associated mutants.
You will perform bioinformatic analysis to predict the possible effects of disease-linked mutations. You will also work in the lab to analyse protein samples from cell lines expressing the wild type and disease-linked mutation proteins. These tests will assess expression level and glycosylation status using SDS-PAGE and western blotting.
You will then interpret their findings in combination with immuno-fluorescence microscopy data.
Fluorescence microscopy is a valuable tool to study the localisation of proteins. This RSM aims to introduce you to the laboratory techniques used in cell imaging to study protein localisation.
You will use green fluorescent protein (GFP) and antibody labelling to determine the localisation of an unknown GFP-chimera. You will be expected to formulate a hypothesis surrounding the localisation of your GFP-chimera protein, and then design an experiment to test the hypothesis using antibody labelling of cells expressing the GFP-chimera.
This RSM aims to introduce you to the laboratory techniques used in developmental biology.
You will use Xenopus embryos to assess the role of growth factors TGFβ and FGF signalling in mesoderm induction. You will analyse the effect of inhibiting TGFβ and FGF signalling using small chemical inhibitors in early Xenopus embryos and activating the TGFβ pathway in naïve animal cap cells with the ActivinβB ligand.
The effects of the different treatments will be analysed at the phenotypical level, and by monitoring the expression of genes specific for different tissue types by RT-PCR.
This RSM aims to introduce you to the methods and techniques used in human genetics.
One of the key challenges for the treatment of human disease is to determine if there is a genetic component to the disease and, if so, to determine which gene or genes cause the abnormal phenotype.
In this RSM, you will learn and explore how diseases that show locus heterogeneity are studied. You will:
- investigate the methods used for the analysis of genetic markers associated with disease genes
- utilise pedigrees to track the inheritance of disease alleles
- analyse patient sequences to find mutations that are likely to cause the disease
- evaluate the biochemical effect of any mutations identified.
This RSM aims to introduce you to iPSC and CRISPR technologies.
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing represent two significant breakthrough technologies in modern biomedicine, which enables disease modelling, cell therapy, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine.
You will be introduced to the basic concepts of iPSC and CRISPR/Cas9 technologies, learn how to make human iPSCs, and manipulate genes in iPSCs using CRISPR/Cas9.
You will learn the design of guide RNA and the delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 components into iPSCs, and then investigate how to analyse the gene editing results and determine its efficiency.
This RSM aims to introduce you to important research skills and techniques used in protein purification and characterisation.
You will purify His-tagged recombinant proteins expressed in E. coli using affinity chromatograph, and determine the protein concentration and enzyme-specific activities.
You will also perform enzyme kinetic studies and analyse data to determine the key kinetic parameters (Vmax and Km) using the Michaelis-Menten equation.
Through this RSM, you should be able to expand your knowledge of protein purification and characterisation, and enhance your experimental and mini-project design skills.
The knowledge of protein structure is key to understanding protein function. This RSM aims to introduce you to important methods used in protein structural biology.
A brief introduction to methods for determining protein structure will be given in a lecture format. A subsequent computer lab class will explore deposited protein structures alongside electron density obtained from experimental methods.
You will also learn how to use graphical tools embedded in the Protein Data Bank website, and to work through tasks given on a worksheet.
Staff
Dr Hui Lu
Academic Lead for the Biosciences International Summer School (Bio-SISS)
Dr Lu is a lecturer of Biochemistry in the School of Biological Sciences. Her research focus is redox regulation, function and quality control of mitochondrial proteins in health and diseases.
Professor Qing-Jun Meng
Founder of Bio-SISS, Director of Internationalisation, School of Biological Sciences
Qing-Jun is a Professor of Chronobiology and a Versus Arthritis Senior Research Fellow within the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at The University of Manchester.
Contact us
Find out more
For information about booking your place on the Biosciences International Summer School, please get in touch.
Email: siss@manchester.ac.uk