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Biochemistry (Structured PhD)

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Course Overview
Course Outline
Research Areas
Course Fees
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Get the Edge with a Postgraduate Degree from NUI Galway Grainne McNamara - MSc Enterprise Systems Gordan Sands - MSc Medical Physics Biomedical Engineering at NUI Galway Mohammed Hasan – Occupational Health & Safety (MSc)

Course Overview

All PhD students in the College of Science will enrol in a Structured PhD

Research activity within the discipline of biochemistry involves some sixty postgraduate students and thirty postdoctoral researchers from all over the world. Research is carried out in the following main areas:

Cell Stress and Cell Death
Researchers in this area examine what signals arise within the cell during stress and how different stresses can cause death in certain cell types, particularly in neurons and in heart muscle cells.

Chromosome Biology
The ten research groups comprising the Centre for Chromosome Biology are interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying chromosome replication, segregation, repair, and transcription. These processes are fundamental to genetics and have important implications for and other diseases.

Developmental Biology
Particular interests lie in the control of gene expression during development using the zebrafish model. Other work looks at how blood cells develop from stem cells.

Molecular Biotechnology
Research in this area focuses on the industrial application of enzymes and other biomolecules from fungi.

Programmes Available

(Structured PhD) Biochemistry—4 years (full-time).
Applications are made online via the University of Galway Postgraduate Applications System.

Associated

Learning Outcomes

Entry Requirements

To be eligible to enter on a programme of study and research for the degree of PhD you must have reached a high honours standard at the examination for the primary degree or presented such evidence as will satisfy the Head of School and the College of your fitness.

Who’s Suited to This Course

Current research projects

See Biochemistry website.

Current funded research opportunity

PhD Walsh Scholarship—PhD in Bovine Genetics
PhD scholarship opportunity: application of next generation sequencing for the identification of DNA based biomarkers in regulatory regions of the genome for susceptibility to bovine respiratory disease complex. Closing date for applications: 18 May 2020. Click here for more information.

Work Placement

Related Student Organisations

Career Opportunities

Find a Supervisor / PhD Project

If you are still looking for a potential supervisor or PhD project or would like to identify the key research interests of our academic staff and researchers, you can use our online portal to help in that search

Course Outline

Curriculum Information

Curriculum information relates to the current academic year (in most cases).
Course and module offerings and details may be subject to change.

Glossary of Terms

Credits: You must earn a defined number of credits (aka ECTS) to complete each year of your course. You do this by taking all of its required modules as well as the correct number of optional modules to obtain that year's total number of credits.
Module: An examinable portion of a subject or course, for which you attend lectures and/or tutorials and carry out assignments. E.g. Algebra and Calculus could be modules within the subject Mathematics. Each module has a unique module code eg. MA140.
Subject: Some courses allow you to choose subjects, where related modules are grouped together. Subjects have their own required number of credits, so you must take all that subject's required modules and may also need to obtain the remainder of the subject's total credits by choosing from its available optional modules.
Optional: A module you may choose to study.
Required: A module that you must study if you choose this course (or subject).
Required Core Subject: A subject you must study because it's integral to that course.
Semester: Most courses have 2 semesters (aka terms) per year, so a three-year course will have six semesters in total. For clarity, this page will refer to the first semester of year 2 as 'Semester 3'.

Year 1 (0 Credits)

Year 2 (90 Credits)

Year 3 (90 Credits)

Year 4 (90 Credits)

Year 5 (90 Credits)

Year 6 (0 Credits)

Year 7 (0 Credits)

Year 8 (0 Credits)

Research Areas

The aim of the Apoptosis Research is to create a focused, interactive and dynamic research environment, where researchers can come together to understand the complex pathways leading to cell death and can apply this knowledge to the discovery of novel therapies for the treatment of a wide ranges of diseases. www.nuigalway.ie/research/apoptosis/index.html

The discipline of Biochemistry hosts 14 laboratory groups using modern genetic, cellular, biohemical and molecular methods to understand how cells live and die and manage the stresses of both normal and diseased states. www.nuigalway.ie/biochemistry/index.html

Many of the research groups of the discipline of Biochemistry are part of the Centre for Chromosome Biology, a focused and highly interactive group of ten laboratories investigating many aspects of chromosome biology and genome stability. The Centre provides an unparalleled environment for PhD training, with a strong focus on experimental and critical thinking skills as well as scientific independence. http://chromosome.ie/index.html