Biology and Medical Laboratory Research

Biology and Medical Laboratory Research trains research analysts to work as professionals in the Life Science domain. As a research analyst, you will work in a laboratory, where the focus will mainly be on performing biological and/or biomedical research and/or diagnostics. In addition, research analysts will be involved in developing methods and processes or developing products.

As a research analyst, bachelor graduates will be involved in investigating biomedical issues and the development of new products, materials, methods and processes, or improving existing versions of them. The professional field includes e.g. the pharmaceutical and food industries, academic research groups, research institutes, diagnostic laboratories and the agricultural and food sector. The bachelor will develop and build an experimental test set-up, perform and interpret experiments, draw conclusions and write recommendations. The duties will also include organising, coordinating and managing the work activities.

Due to the wide variety of analyses within the domain, the bachelor must have extensive knowledge of and skill set in the different analysis methods used in the professional field. This ranges from manual to fully automated and robotised analyses. Aside from the performance, the bachelor will safeguard quality and interpret the (big) data acquired for question proposition purposes. In a professional field setting, the bachelor can climb up to specialist and/or management positions.

National Educational Programme

Body of Knowledge & Skills

Knowledge

• Cell biology: structure and function of eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, metabolism, transport, signal transduction, cell cycles
• Chemistry: basic chemistry (atomic constitution, reactions in water, kinetics), analytical chemistry (spectroscopy, chromatography), organic chemistry (functional groups)
• Biochemistry: biomolecules, protein and enzyme chemistry
• Molecular biology: DNA, heredity, molecular genetics, recombinant DNA
• Bio-informatics: DNA sequencing technologies (incl. NGS)
• Anatomy/physiology/pathology: constitution and function of organ systems, blood, endocrine system, etc.
• Immunology: innate and acquired defence mechanisms, molecular mechanisms, practical applications
• Microbiology: growth and classification of micro-organisms, pathogenicity mechanisms, infectious diseases, resistance
• Mathematics: biochemical arithmetic, applied mathematics
• Statistics: data processing, normal distribution and confidence intervals, testing

Skills

• General laboratory skills based on GLP (good laboratory practice) rules: weighing, pipetting, mixing solutions (buffers, culture media) and specimens, staining, microscopy, lab journal, chemical arithmetic
• Working safely in the laboratory: processing (biological and chemical) waste, working according to VMT rules (veilige microbiologische technieken or safe microbiological practices): working aseptically, culturing micro-organisms and eukaryotic cells, working with special media, bio-materials (tissues, cells, etc.) and biomolecules (proteins and/or antibodies, DNA)
• Working with basic laboratory equipment: e.g. a pH meter, spectrophotometer, centrifuge, electrophoresis equipment, fume cupboard, safety cabinet, microscope
• Molecular biology techniques: nucleic acid isolation, amplification, cloning, gel electrophoresis
• Biochemical analysis methods: spectrometry, chromatography, enzyme analysis, bonding analysis, ELISA, fractionation methods, SDS-PAGE, blotting
• Bio-informatics: Using and analysing biological datasets with the corresponding quality control
• Information skills: spreadsheets, slide presentations, image analysis, data processing, data visualisation
• Social and communication skills: collaboration, having meetings, reporting (lab journal, research report), presentations, project-based work, ethics
• Research skills: problem analysis, research questions, literature research, research planning and performance