Learning Outcomes
The objective of the Small Research Projects is to familiarize students with the research environment through hands-on experience. From this perspective:
- Students build upon, extend, and deepen knowledge acquired during their undergraduate studies, while also having the opportunity to demonstrate originality in the development and/or application of ideas within the framework of research activity.
- They can apply their knowledge and understanding, as well as their problem-solving skills, to practical situations and problem-solving in a new or unfamiliar context related to their field of study.
- They possess the ability to integrate knowledge, handle complex issues, and formulate judgments and interpretations of their experimental results.
- They are capable of communicating clearly and effectively their conclusions, as well as the knowledge and reasoning on which these conclusions are based, to both specialized and non-specialized audiences.
- They have acquired the necessary learning skills to continue their studies, especially with regard to carrying out their research-based thesis in a future semester, in a largely autonomous and self-directed manner.
Course Content
This course involves the completion of a 15-day laboratory project carried out in various departmental research labs.
Students select and join one of the ongoing lab projects at the time, within which they undertake a distinct component of the research. Upon completion of the project, graduate students are required to submit a detailed project report.
Student Evaluation
At the end of the research project, students prepare a report with the following structure:
- Introduction
- Materials and Methods
- Results
- Discussion – Conclusions
- References
Student evaluation is based on:
- Overall conduct and behavior in the laboratory
- Understanding of the research topic
- Execution of the experimental procedures
- Ability to document results and conclusions in the final report
Recommended Bibliography
The bibliography is related to the research project and adapted specifically in each case for the student.
Related scientific journals:
- Nature Methods
- Molecular Cell
- Nature Structural and Molecular Biology
- EMBO Journal
- Molecular Biology and Evolution
- Trends in Biochemical Sciences
- Molecular Plant
- Trends in Molecular Medicine
- Journal of Molecular Biology
- RNA
- Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences
- Molecular Metabolism
- Human Molecular Genetics
- Molecular Biology of the Cell
- DNA Repair
- Non-coding RNA
- Molecular Cancer Research
- Molecular and Cellular Biology
- Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences
- Mobile DNA Molecular Microbiology