Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
Study Details: 1 year
Designed in collaboration with the NHS: Sheffield Diagnostic Genetics Service, this course is for students who are fascinated by medical genetics.
Through theoretical and hands-on practical skills training, you’ll explore human genetics and develop an understanding of how human genetic diseases are diagnosed clinically at the chromosome and DNA levels. You’ll also have opportunities to explore the wider implications of genetics in fields such as genomics, human fertility, stem cells and cancer biology through your lectures and NHS placement opportunities.
Practical laboratory experience is at the heart of our teaching, with more than half of your MSc taking place in the lab. Here you’ll complete training modules covering a wide range of exciting modern laboratory techniques. You'll learn core skills such as molecular cloning, microorganism handling, DNA sequence analysis, PCR, SDS-PAGE, western blotting and CRISPR, before completing competence-based training in specialist techniques such as human cell culture, cytogenetics, fluorescence microscopy and qPCR.
Minimum 2:1 undergraduate honours degree in a relevant subject with relevant modules.
You’ll be well equipped to pursue a range of exciting careers following your masters.
Thanks to your new clinical skills (that are recognised by diagnostic facilities across the UK), as well as your experience in a professional laboratory, you’ll be well prepared for your next step into healthcare diagnostics in the NHS or other companies allied to the provision of healthcare, or roles at world-leading research centres.
Our previous graduates are now working in roles including:
Students have also gone on to PhD training in cancer research, infection, immunity and cardiovascular disease, molecular genetics and bioinformatics.
Read our student profiles to find out more about the various careers our students have pursued and how the course has helped them to succeed.
Core modules:
Laboratory Techniques in Molecular Bioscience
Advanced Molecular diagnostics and cell culture techniques
Advanced Scientific Skills
Literature Review in Molecular Genetics
Research Project
Optional modules
A student will take 45 credits (three modules) from:
Stem Cell Biology
Clinical Genomics of Cancer and Rare Genetic Diseases
Human Genomics, Proteomics and Genome Biology
Genetic and Epigenetic Regulation of Development
Cancer Biology
Genome Stability and Genetic Change
Human Reproduction and Fertility
The World of RNA
A QS world top-100 university Studying at the University of Sheffield means you’ll get the future that follows a degree from a Russell Group Universit...
Wed 29 Apr 2026