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Genetics: Give peace of mind, not pieces of it - News9 LIVE
A clinical trial involving University of Utah Health and NYU Langone Health in New York is seeking to identify patients who qualify for genetic risk assessment using a clinical decision support algorithm to automatically evaluate family history of cancer. The BRIDGE Trial also is testing the use of a chatbot for patient outreach.
At last weeks National Human Genome Research Institute meeting on genomic learning healthcare systems, Guilherme Del Fiol, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor and vice-chair of research in the University of Utahs Department of Biomedical Informatics, described the BRIDGE (Broadening the Reach, Impact, and Delivery of Genetic Services) Trial.
This randomized controlled trial has been funded by two grants from the National Cancer Institute, one of them focused on a software platform for population-level, genomic clinical decision support, and the other one is a randomized multi-site trial using this platform for a specific use case.
Kimberly Kaphingst, ScD,a professor in the Department of Communication and the director of Cancer Communication Research at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah, is the principal investigator on the project.
The original motivation for this project was the finding that about 13 percent of individuals are at elevated risk for familial breast and colorectal cancer, and that most of these individuals are unaware of their risk, Del Fiol said, and at the same time, there are evidence-based guidelines recommending genetic testing based on their family history.
The goals of the project were essentially to enable a population health management platform that allows clinicians to use computable logic to identify patients who meet evidence-based criteria for genetic testing, and then to use a registry-based approach with patient outreach tools to manage the risk, he explained.
We leverage family history that's available in the EHR, and we do not try to collect or improve the collection of family history, Del Fiol stressed. Another essential part of the strategy is that in order to minimize primary care effort, primary care providers are kept into the loop of this whole process, but they are not asked to do anything extra.
Part of the innovation is to try to use automated chatbots for the patient outreach process, which includes patient education, in offering genetic testing. The BRIDGE Trial is about to finish enrollment at University of Utah Health and New York University Langone Health.
From the project website, here is information on the BRIDGE Trials goals:
The researchers hypothesize that uptake of genetic counseling and genetic testing will be equivalent between the chatbot and the genetic services delivery models. They also plan to explore how race, ethnicity, and geographic location modify the effects of the cancer genetics services delivery models on the outcomes.
Del Fiol said the project involves use of the OpenCDS platform. OpenCDS is a multi-institutional, collaborative effort to develop open-source, standards-based clinical decision support (CDS) tools and resources that can be widely adopted to enable CDS at scale.
Del Fiol explained how the system works: The population coordinator system identifies a screening population, which in this case is basically everyone who meets a certain age range and has been seen in a primary care at University of Utah or NYU-Langone. The population coordinator retrieves data from these patients and transforms everything into FHIR from the EHR. Next, FHIR data is transmitted to OpenCDS in bulk. OpenCDS has an interface based on the CDS Hooks standard, which is a clinical decision support services standard that allows an independent service to receive a request to analyze patients according to certain logic, and then respond with the results of those analyses all in a standard format. CDS Hooks uses FHIR as the data standard both for requests and responses.
The results are then exported back into the EHR. In our case, for Epic, it uses Epics population registry solution, Del Fiol said. We load patients who meet criteria into the registry, and then the genetic counseling assistants uses that registry functionality to manage the population and conduct patient outreach activities.
This platform is supporting the BRIDGE trial, which is comparing two approaches for patient education and outreach, with the goal of offering genetic testing for patients who meet family history-based criteria. There are two arms of the study, Del Fiol explained. One is our usual care, which basically involves genetic counselors making phone calls to those patients, one by one, providing some education over the phone, in trying to schedule a genetic counseling appointment. The alternative approach in the second arm of the study is using an automated chatbot, which provides education about genetics and then at the very end of a chatbot conversation, it offers the option to receive genetic testing. If they decide to do testing, they receive a kit in the mail, collect the sample at home, mail the sample back to the lab, and an outreach note is written back into Epic with the patient's decision and the transcript of that conversation.
For patients who test positive, they get a genetic counseling appointment, and are basically back to the usual care workflow. But most patients test negative and are managed in an automated fashion using the chatbot. In both cases, a note is written into the EHR, with clinical recommendations. For patients who test negative that's an automated note, and for patients whose test positive, the note is written by a genetic counselor.
So far, more than 3,000 patients have received outreach in one of the two study arms. I'm not going to make comparisons here because the trial hasn't been completed yet, he said, but so far, 23 percent of the people who received an offer to use the chatbot or receive the phone call for genetic counseling completed the entire process they either completed the chatbot interaction, or they scheduled a genetic counseling appointment and had that appointment completed.
Del Fiol described some early lessons learned in this process. We found that using chatbots does seem to be a scalable approach for patient outreach and engagement. It minimizes the genetic counseling efforts, he said.
Overall, family history data is incomplete in the EHR. But when you have a family history assertion in the EHR, we found that it's largely correct, and rarely leads to false positive patient identification, he added.
Regarding clinical workflow, they tested interoperability using two EHR systems at three institutions, two on Epic and one on Cerner. At Intermountain Healthcare, we demonstrated that this works with a Cerner system, but we found there are significant disparities in family history documentation across different patient populations," he added. In addition, one problem with the chatbot is that it really relies on smartphone technology, and higher percentages of the people in low-SES and rural populations don't have a smartphone.
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Project Uses OpenCDS, Chatbots to Broaden Genetic Testing's Reach - Healthcare Innovation
Adana A.M. Llanos, PhD, MPH, discusses key research on the social and biological factors that influence disparities in breast cancer, how these factors work in tandem to affect patient outcomes, and how this knowledge can be deployed in the real world.
Although genetic and biologic factors play a key role in outcomes for patients with breast cancer, social and structural determinants also have a place in the equation. Addressing these existing genetic factors and social determinants, thereby improving prevention and detection, can help reduce disparities in metastatic breast cancer, where Black women historically present more frequently at advanced stages and have worse outcomes, according to Adana A.M. Llanos, PhD, MPH.
In a presentation during the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting, Llanos highlighted how understanding the genetic and etiological aspects of breast cancer can help inform prevention and screening techniques. The next challenge for physicians will be implementing these ideas into community practice to better serve underrepresented patient populations.1
Focusing on all of the different time points throughout [the cancer care] continuum will be a critical aspect of achieving more health equity and more equitable outcomes, Llanos said. This is a major goal throughout my long-term research interests.
In an interview with OncLive, Llanos discussed other key research on the social and biological factors that influence disparities in breast cancer, how these factors work in tandem to affect patient outcomes, and how this knowledge can be deployed in the real world. She is an associate professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and an adjunct associate professor at Rutgers School of Public Health.
Llanos: My talk was part of a discussion involving 2 selected abstracts. The session included abstracts that focused on some of the racial, ethnic, and regional disparities in metastatic breast cancer.
The lead author for the first abstract is Sachi Singhal, MD, [who explored racial and regional disparities in metastatic breast cancer].2 The second abstract focused on the variation of genetic mutations, specifically pathogenic variants in breast cancer predisposition genes, and how they're related to triple-negative breast cancer [TNBC].3 That abstract was presented by Michael J. Hall, MD, MS.
In my talk, I provided an overview of some of the existing racial and ethnic disparities that we see in breast cancer in the United States, highlighting stage distribution and focusing on the fact that the distribution of tumor stage varies by race and ethnicity. We see high rates [of advanced stages of disease] among Black women. Moreover, I talked about some of the factors related to this disparity in advanced stage diagnosis by race.
I also presented the distribution of tumor subtypes, focusing on TNBC, which tend to be among the most aggressive forms of breast cancer. We see that the incidence of TNBC is substantially higher in Black women. [Our goal is to gain a greater] understanding of how some of the racial, ethnic, and ancestral [factors of breast cancer intersect and interact with] genetics and social determinants of health to contribute to these disparities and how they impact poor outcomes among some patient groups.
This session highlighted some of the facts that clinicians already know. The abstracts [by Drs Singhal and Hall] got at the biology [of breast cancer] and the social/structural determinants that could be related and working together to impact outcomes.
Im an epidemiologist, and Im interested in studying social and biological factors that contribute to disparities. One of the takeaways in my talk was how we can address breast cancer disparities at multiple phases in the cancer control continuum. This includes looking at etiology and biology, which is more focused on genetics and ancestry. These are things that we cannot change but understanding them better will give us a good sense of ways that we can address disparities.
Looking at prevention, we talk a lot about precision medicine and treatment. However, maybe we should be talking more about precision prevention, [which includes] detection and diagnosis. There are disparities [in these spaces], and [it is important to consider] how we can address those disparities.
Guideline-concordant treatment was not a major focus of my talk but understanding the genetics behind some of these disparities will contribute to improving the treatment options and guideline-concordant treatment for patients with breast cancer. Lastly, public health is important. [We need to learn] how to deploy all this knowledge to have a broader impact on patients and communities.
[Considering] the emerging data and studies around the genetics of TNBC, one of the limitations of a lot of the existing and past research is the historical underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minority groups, especially those of African ancestry. As new studies and larger studies are initiated, it is critical to have broad representation of diverse ancestral backgrounds to [allow investigators] to get a sense of some of the genetic and etiological differences, why they exist, and how [these factors] can impact treatment.
As important as biology and genetics are, we need to consider the social determinants and structural determinants across the entire cancer care continuum, not just for breast cancer, but for all cancers.
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Social Determinants and Genetics Work in Tandem to Drive Disparities in Breast Cancer Care - OncLive
How can the biology of a crop be manipulated for greater profits in this fast-growing market through breeding?
Since early farmers began collecting seeds for propagation, they focused on varieties that performed best in unpredictable field conditions, not in highly controlled environments. Specifically, crop plants exude up to 40% photosynthate into the soil to "feed" beneficial microbes and allocate additional resources to produce secondary products to protect against pests and diseases.
Unlocking the full potential of seed for precisely controlled environments, where every day is a good day, will allow breeders to focus on plant characteristics that improve when grown indoors and downplay problems that would be of great concern for outdoor production. As we control the environment more, we can engineer crops with traits to delight the consumer and improve the supply chain.
Marc Oshima, co-founder of AeroFarms, says, "For vertical farms, breeders can focus on qualities of primary importance to consumers: flavor, aroma, texture, and other quality-related attributes. It's also important to have plants that are architecturally efficient so that they can be easily maintained and harvested in our unique environment."
The biggest breeding goals for field-grown fruits and vegetables are disease resistance. Breeders are spinning on a treadmill to stay ahead of the next disease in the field. It's not simply a matter of swapping disease-resistant genes for genes that confer good flavor, but CEA allows breeders to stay ahead of the next potentially devastating disease outdoors. Some diseases, such as powdery mildew, are possible indoors but can often be controlled by management practices.
Source: http://www.bioeconomia.info.
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The power of genetics to unleash the potential of indoor farming - Vertical Farm Daily
Australian dairy farmers can now use breeding to help reduce their farms greenhouse gas emissions.
DataGene has introduced a new stand-alone breeding index called the Sustainability Index included in its August release of Australian Breeding Values.
The Sustainability Index ranks bulls according to their ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase milk production while also considering other vital profitability traits.
DataGenes Peter Thurn said breeding for reduced greenhouse gas emission intensity didnt mean compromising on other traits which underpin on-farm profitability.
The Sustainability Index is highly correlated with the Balanced Performance Index; the top bulls on one, will be highly ranked on the other, Mr Thurn said.
Its just a difference in weighting, and with the Sustainability Index, the weighting of feed saved and survival has tripled compared to the BPI. Looking at it from a financial perspective, the trade off in BPI over the next 25 years if you select on the Sustainability Index instead is about $1 a year for Holsteins and its even less for Jerseys.
There are two ways to tackle greenhouse gas emissions on a dairy farm reduce the total or gross emissions or reduce the emission intensity.
The Sustainability Index focuses on reducing emission intensity, that is, decreasing the amount of carbon emitted relative to milk production.
This is calculated by dividing the amount of carbon emitted by the amount of milk produced.
The reduction in emission intensity is achieved through a combination of dilution and increased efficiency, higher milk production from longer lived, more feed efficient cows means more milk per tonne of carbon, Mr Thurn said.
Reducing emissions intensity is a more practical approach as it does not diminish productivity, whereas a gross approach could lead to less productive and ultimately less profitable cows.
Like any index, you can add a range of other traits to assist you to breed the type of cow you want in your herd. A good way to do this is to use DataGenes Good Bulls App or the DataVat website.
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Cutting emissions with genetics - Shepparton News
Valedictory of IABSCON-South Zone-2022 and International Symposium on Translational Research, Dr. H. Basavana Gowdappa, Principal, JSS Medical College, chief guest, Dr. T. Venkatesh, St. Johns Medical College, Bengaluru, Dr. R. Medha, JIPMER, Puducherry and Dr. H.P. Gurushankara, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod, will be present, Vijnana Bhavan, Manasagangothri, 4 pm.
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Events tomorrow SEPTEMBER 9: Department of Studies (DoS) in Genetics and Genomics, Mysore University - Star of Mysore
NEW YORK Illumina said this week that it has opened its first manufacturing site in China. The Shanghai-based facility will initially produce 16 clinical sequencing reagents. In a statement, the firm said it plans to "achieve complete localized production for its gene sequencing instruments and consumables within the next five years."
Interpace Biosciences this week announced the closing of the sale of its Pharma Services business to Flagship Biosciences for an undisclosed amount. Parsippany, New Jersey-based Interpace will use the proceeds of the transaction for working capital requirements and investments to help drive the growth of its molecular diagnostics business. The company said the disposition of its pharma services business is expected to improve operating cash flow by nearly $5 million annually.
The American Society of Human Genetics said this week that the Illumina Corporate Foundation has awarded it a one-year, $175,000 grant to support the ASHG learning center.
The web portal offers scientists access to professional education videos, webinars, workshops, and other content. ASHG said it would use the grant to implement closed captioning across its live and on-demand content. Other details were not disclosed.
Genetic Signatures this week reported fiscal year 2022 revenues of A$35.4 million, a 25 percent increase from A$28.3 million in FY 2021. The growth was driven by demand for the firm's EasyScreen SARS-CoV-2 Detection Kit, although the company said in a statement that demand for other non-COVID-19 tests has increased. The company's net income for the full year was A$3.3 million, or A$2.11 per share, compared to A$1.8 million, or A$1.23 per share, in the previous year. The Australian firm had A$36.9 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the fiscal year.
OpGen has been granted a 180-day extension from the Listing Qualifications Department of Nasdaq to regain compliance with the exchange's minimum bid price requirement. If at any time until Feb. 27, 2023, the bid price for OpGen's common stock closes at or above $1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive trading days, the firm will regain compliance with the rule. The firm's share price hasn't closed at $1 or higher since mid-January.
Ochsner Health this week became the first healthcare system to incorporate Epic Systems' Orders and Results Anywhere integration with its genomic module. Physicians at New Orleans-based Ochsner, through the system's Precision Medicine Program, will now be able to order Tempus Health genomic tests for patients within the electronic health record system. Through the Epic EHRs, physicians can order genomic tests to identify actionable variants, in turn informing therapeutic decisions and clinical trial eligibility. In addition to Tempus, Epic has also partnered with Caris Life Sciences, Guardant Health, and Myriad Genetics to integrate biomarker testing into EHRs.
Guardant Health said this week that it has expanded its collaboration with Merck KGaA to further leverage the GuardantINFORM real-world evidence platform to help accelerate development efforts for the pharma firm's precision oncology pipeline. The expanded strategic collaboration will focus on therapy development for core cancer indications with significant unmet need.
Caris Life Sciences said this week that the Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center has joined its Precision Oncology Alliance, a growing network of leading cancer centers that collaborate to advance precision oncology and biomarker-driven research. MCW is the largest private research institution in Wisconsin, and its cancer center serves a distinct region that includes large, underserved populations of patients who experience significant disparities in cancer incidence and outcomes.
POA members gain access to a growing portfolio of biomarker-directed trials as well as Caris' CODEai, an industry-leading dataset with cancer treatment information and clinical outcomes data for over 275,000 patients.
The Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre Berhad said this week that it has signed a memorandum of understanding to explore opportunities for the distribution of biopharmaceutical and genomics products and services with Ajlan & Bros Medical Company. Under the MoU, the parties will explore the feasibility of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Ajlan becoming a marketing and distribution representative for Malaysian Genomics for genetic screening tests, mesenchymal stem cell products, and exosome products. Ajlan will also identify commercial R&D opportunities for genome sequencing and analysis in the Middle East and North Africa region for areas such as agriculture, aquaculture, plantations, healthcare, and industrial biotechnology. In turn, Malaysian Genomics will analyze samples for genetic screening tests as well as provide Ajlan with genomic and bioinformatics expertise to bid for projects.
BioEcho Life Sciences, a Cologne, Germany-based biotech company specializing in nucleic acid extraction technology, has opened a US subsidiary in Boston. In a statement, BioEcho General Manager Lydia Willing noted that the company will provide an extensive portfolio of its products in the US and have the ability to work on specific customer needs around nucleic acid research.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on GenomeWeb.
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In Brief This Week: Illumina, Interpace, Genetic Signatures, Guardant Health, More - GenomeWeb
This performance is Part Four of a series in which Bindler's scars speak candidly about trauma and desire. Imagine Mister Rogers had a scooter accident, a thyroidectomy, a brain injury... and the puppets in his neighborhood were the remnants of these calamities. Welcome to The Case For Invagination!
This collection of solos arose out of Bindler's somatic Body-Mind Centering research on the embryology of the genitalia from a nonbinary perspective. From these ideas she developed a series of interactive performances based on the practice of allowing space/situations/people to invite us in, rather than injecting ourselves into spaces. This practice has social and political implications around embodying consent culture and as an antidote to the ways many of us have internalized capitalism, colonialism, sexism, and ableism.
After the third version, performed at last year's Cannonball/Fringe festivals, many audience members reported that Bindler's brain scar was the most poignant for them. This was the newest addition to her chorus of scars, and seemed like the most compelling one for her to explore more deeply in the fourth version.
The brain scar is a personification of the remnants of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) she suffered in 2018. In their monologue, brain scar describes what it's like to be a TBI, "Some people were so freaked out and disgusted by her inability to fulfill her professional commitments, they looked at her like she was a demented grandma." Brain scar ponders their identity, "What is me? Am I brain? Am I a scar? Am I Nicole?" And they also describe their deepest desires, "I would like Nicole to take me to the sensory deprivation tank for a little vacay."
For the past year Bindler and her director, Mark Kennedy, have delved into her experience of TBI through the voice of the brain itself. Like previous instalments, this edition includes tragicomic autobiography told through monologues and dancing with an underlying politics around feminism, decoloniality, and Disability Justice.
Philadelphia Weekly has described Bindler as: "A xture in Philadelphia's experimental dance scene ... Nicole Bindler is known for riveting performances." As a life-long committed experimentalist she creates work that collides improvised dance, extended techniques, somatic practice, theater, comedy, political commentary, and electroacoustic music.
For more information about this performance, please see this thINKingDANCE review by Leslie Bush: https://thinkingdance.net/articles/2019/11/02/Single-Thing-Infinite-Folds
Nicole Bindler-dance-maker, Body-Mind Centering practitioner, writer, and activist-has practiced contact improvisation for 25 years, and her work has been presented on four continents. Recent projects include curating an evening of Palestinian dance films at Fidget Space; somatic research on the embryology of the genitalia from a non-binary perspective; workshops on Disability Justice, Neuroqueering Embodiment, and Polyvagal Theory and Protest; conference presentations about rebuilding in-person dance and somatics communities in ways that tangibly address the inequities laid bare by the pandemic; co-producing the Consent Culture in Contact Improvisation Symposium at Earthdance; and a solo dance, The Case for Invagination, in which her scars speak candidly about trauma and desire. https://www.nicolebindler.com/
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THE CASE FOR INVAGINATION #4 Comes to The Mass Building - Broadway World
Although neurosurgery is popular among medical students in other countries, in China, it is still a challenge to recruit high-quality students into neurosurgery [20,21,22,23]. How to recruit high-quality students into neurosurgery in China is an important question that needs to be addressed. In this study, we use CBL and PBL integrated methods to implement teaching, which makes it easier for students to master neurosurgery knowledge and thus boosts their interest in neurosurgery compared to the traditional teaching method. Meanwhile, students self-confidence was significantly increased, and more students were inclined to choose neurosurgery as a career.
The traditional teaching method is the most efficient and economical way to deliver core knowledge and concepts [6, 19]. It is very suitable for teaching in large, basic medical classes, such as physiology, biochemistry, and tissue embryology, because these courses are focused on students mastery of knowledge points. However, in the teaching of clinical courses, such as internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, and pediatrics, more attention is given to the cultivation of students ability to integrate theory with practice and clinical thinking ability. The traditional teaching model is not suitable for the teaching of these courses. However, thus far, no standard teaching plan for clinical courses has been developed.
Most instructors are constantly exploring new teaching methods for clinical courses [15,16,17,18,19]. In this study, the results revealed that the scores of students self-evaluation, theoretical examination, and the students clinical application ability evaluation tests of those who received the CBL and PBL integrated methods were higher than those students who received the traditional teaching method, suggesting that the CBL and PBL integrated method is more suitable for neurosurgery teaching.
CBL and PBL integrated methods have been demonstrated to be better than the traditional teaching method in the teaching of other clinical courses. Liu et al. adopted CBL-PBL teaching for maxillary sinus floor augmentation, and better results were obtained in terms of academic knowledge acquisition, case analysis ability, and student satisfaction compared to the traditional teaching method [17]. Zhao et al. also demonstrated that in teaching about thyroid disease, CBL and PBL integrated methods improved residents and medical students performance and enhanced their clinical skills compared to the traditional teaching method [19]. However, some scholars research shows that student performance has not been improved with the new teaching method and that students prefer traditional lecture-style teaching [24, 25].
CBL is an active learning process. Students focus on the patients case, engage in scientific inquiry, self-guided learning, and collaboration with classmates, integrating theory into practice, developing clinical problems solving ability and critical thinking ability. PBL is an instructional approach that promotes students to integrate theory into practice and apply knowledge to develop viable solutions to some scheduled problems. It aims to help students develop their problem-solving abilities building upon their basic and clinical knowledge base [11,12,13,14,15,16].
Actually, CBL is considered a derivative of PBL, and the two are often confused (Fig.3) [15, 16]. Srinivasan et al. pointed out that, unlike PBL, CBL often requires a certain basic theoretical knowledge of the subject [26]. Obviously, it is inadequate if CBL is used alone for the clinical teaching of undergraduates because they do not have theoretical knowledge of various fields. In addition, CBL pays more attention to the analysis of clinical cases, not just to the mastery of professional knowledge. However, PBL can make up for these shortcomings of CBL. As in this study, when assigning cases, we summarize the knowledge points that student need to master in problems and let students analyze cases based on the type of problem. The students clinical skills improved significantly, and it was easier for them to master theoretical knowledge.
Differences between CBL and PBL in clinical teaching
Another advantage of CBL is that neurosurgery can be exposed to students early in the form of cases, and early exposure to neurosurgery contributes to medical student recruitment [27, 28]. In this study, students interests in neurosurgery increased through case teaching, and neurosurgery selection at the end of the semester was increased. However, the teaching methods of CBL and PBL integrated methods also have certain shortcomings. This teaching method is only suitable for small class teaching, which not only requires more neurosurgeons to participate in medical teaching but also requires neurosurgeons to have a great interest in teaching. Compared with the traditional teaching method, the PBL and CBL teaching methods require instructors to dedicate more time and energy.
There are several inevitable limitations in this study. First, this is a single-institution, small-sample study, and a multi-institution, large sample size study is needed. Second, this study cannot be completed in a double-blind manner because students may communicate privately. Third, although the teaching procedures of CBL and PBL integrated methods are uniform, the teaching style of each teacher in the traditional teaching model is different. Therefore, the results obtained may be biased. Last, teachers of other majors may also choose some new teaching methods, which may impact students major selection. This study did not capture these details.
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Improving medical student recruitment into neurosurgery through teaching reform - BMC Medical Education - BMC Medical Education
What youll learnThe biosciences are a wide field including human biology, bioinformatics, botany, zoology, genetics, microbiology and biochemistry. What youll learn depends on how you decide to specialise you could learn the fundamentals of cell biology, the computer skills needed to understand protein sequences, or the mating habits of orangutans.
Youll know how to research information, apply it and use specialist equipment. And youll develop an understanding of the ethical considerations associated with your field of study.
How youll learnYoull spend a lot of your time in the laboratory doing practical work, and most courses require students to conduct their own research. There will probably be group projects, so youll learn how to work in a team. Chances are youll be taught by those at the cutting edge of research. Assessment will involve a mix of coursework, projects and exams. Some courses offer a year in industry a good way of building your CV.
Entry requirementsUniversities are likely to expect biology at A-level or equivalent, and sometimes chemistry. They may also ask for an additional science or maths (or further maths or pure maths). Course requirements will likely range from CCC to AAA. You may be required to attend an interview and give a short presentation on a topic in your field of study.
What job can you get?Lots of jobs are suited to biology graduates, but if you want to work as a scientist youll need to do further study at postgraduate level. If you want to specialise, your degree should give you the skills to turn your hand to forensic science, immunology and toxicology, to name but a few. You could then find suitable research posts in the public and private sector particularly in industry or in academia. Many biology graduates end up in the health and social care sector, and in education.
The skills you acquire will also qualify you for jobs outside the lab. Work can be found in local and central government, in NGOs, doing conservation work, and in teaching.
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University subject profile: biology - The Guardian