BCMB30012: Current Advances in Molecular Science

3 written assignments (500 words each, 10% each) + 1 MCQ MST 10% + Group presentation at end of sem 15% + Paper review end of sem 15% + Final Exam 30%

This was an okay subject, not my favourite ever, but didn't hate it either. This subject builds upon knowledge from lvl 2 BCMB to give us a "taste" of 7 research pathways we could go into: 1) Gene regulation 2) Epitranscriptomics 3) Metabolomics 4) Protein trafficking 5) Protein structure and function 6) CRISPR 7) Cell signalling and regulation.

Each module is taken by a different lecturer (in order above). I found most of them to be really knowledgeable and easy to work with during the workshops. The lecture content is given in small videos (a la BCMB20002) and during the workshop you go through a research publication that applied the lecture content to obtain data and results, and discuss it as a group.

This is a good subject if you're thinking of going into biomedical research, there's a heavy focus on publication writing, literature reviews and translational biochemistry.

I found most modules to be okay, but because each were only 1 week long, they were often very vague. Module 3 and 5 were the absolute worst. 3 was just badly done, with no clear outcomes or what we're expected to know. The lectures for 5 were better, but the workshop was a waste of time, no discussion just us working through a question document while Isabelle was slowly scrolling through the answers... But the rest were all interesting and engaging, I highly recommend going in person if you get that possibility. I think Module 4 and 7 were my favourites.

Overall, I didn't find this subject hard to do well in, the assignment guidelines were pretty vague, you'll have to write a Lit search review, a Ministerial Briefing and a News and Views article. If you've never heard of these before, neither did we. They were challenging to write because no one really knew what they were doing, but I think they were pretty lenient with the marking because I know lots of people got high H1s, including myself. The MST is mcq and I found it fair, but the average was around 65%, which I think balanced out the assignments a little. The presentation and paper review are based on the same research paper. You will be put in groups of 4-5 with a mentor, often an author on the paper and you'll have to present the paper to the rest of the class as a group and write an individual review, due at the end of semester. Everyone got an H1 on the presentation so again they were pretty lenient. And likewise, the review was pretty easy to write since, by then, you'd be pretty much an expert on this paper anyway. The final exam is saq, and like the MST, is based on the lecture content, so as long as you have decent notes, you should be right. A lot of people found it challenging, but I personally found it pretty fair. There werent any surprising questions and I think the time limit was decent.

Finally, this is meant to be a sister subject for Advanced Techniques (BCMB30010) under the reworked BCMB major. While this made 30010 easier, taking both subjects concurrently was rough. Deadlines for both always in the same weeks, sometimes in the same day plus online practicals for one when we had in person workshops for the other on the same day (which sucks for someone with a long commute home). It felt like they did not coordinate these two subjects well together at all, so I would recommend taking them both in separate semesters. But maybe do this one first because you're taught how to do literature searches and all that which would be beneficial for the report in 30010.

As a core subject for the BCMB major, its okay, really nothing to stress over, but you still need to put in some effort to get good grades, especially for the MST and Exam, but its really not that hard to keep up with the work, so it should be a fairly easy H1, especially as far as BCMB subjects go.

Science/MDHS

Yes, with screen capture

Heather Verkade, Stuart Ralph, Malcolm McConville, Laura Edgington-Mitchell, Isabelle Rouiller, Ian van Driel, Paul Gooley (though they do change in Sem 2)

New subject, so no past exams.

4 Out of 5

No textbook.

1 module/week (total of 7 modules) with small video lectures, about 1h in total per week + 2 hour workshop/week

2021 Sem 1

H1 (84)