February 18, 2024
Why study biomedicine at LiU?
Hello! Hello!
I am in the last semester of my studies at LiU and am currently writing my master’s thesis. I did my bachelor’s already here and then, I continued to stay for my master’s as well. Today, I will share with you why I decided to do that rather than continue someplace else! Firstly though, can you guess what’s in the photo above? If not, that’s okay – I will say later 😀
At Linköping University, students benefit from the research facilities and resources. It includes well-equipped laboratories and research centres and specialized instrumentation and computational resources. The university provides us with access to the tools and technologies essential for experimentation during EVERY course. What I like about this is also that the laboratory techniques differ between courses and are tailored to specific areas. For example, I took a neurobiology course where we had an electrophysiology lab. In the tumour biology course, we had mutational analysis, flow cytometry and western blot while in the advanced immunology course, we had ELISA and SPR. This environment allows you to try different techniques, explore your scientific curiosity and maybe find a group for your thesis. Moreover, you have a mandatory 15 or 30 credits (you choose) project where you perform your own research in the research group. This project is additional to your master thesis which is conducted in the 2nd year.
One of the hallmarks of studying biomedicine at Linköping University is the interdisciplinary approach to education and research. LiU offers programmes that integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines, including biology, chemistry, physics, and medicine. Perhaps, this one isn’t as much interdisciplinary as my bachelor’s which makes sense since you want to specialise in a certain area during your master’s. However, this is not the only biomedicine-related programme so others that are more physics- or chemistry-related may be to your liking. You just need to check the LiU website for Biomedical Engineering or Protein Chemistry, respectively. Nevertheless, the groups where you will perform your projects collaborate with diverse researchers and when I was doing my project, I worked with physicists and chemists as my project involved biomaterials. I initially didn’t understand anything from that part but slowly, I learnt. It broadened my perspectives and equipped me with a more diverse skill set needed to address complex biomedical problems from multiple angles.
During the first semester, we set up our own plan for the whole master programme. You have the help of a mentor with whom you meet individually to discuss your plans and goals before deciding your plan. After that, you may still seek their help in case you change your mind or have any other issues. The plan that you set up is essentially, choosing the courses you want to take and deciding when you will do your project. Remember that this master’s is either one or two years long (up to you) so you should check the curriculum thoroughly and decide which one you would like to do.
Last but not least is the fact that I liked the courses. I had an idea in my mind of what I wanted to do after my master’s and the courses that LiU offered aligned with my interests. In my programme, aside from mandatory courses, I decided to take neurobiology, infection biology, molecular virology, tumour biology and advanced immunology. Indeed, this master’s programme isn’t specialised but this allows for interdisciplinary learning and if you choose your courses wisely then you do have a certain area of focus. For example, I focused on all infection biology-related courses as this was my area of interest. I wasn’t certain whether I wanted to continue in the area of neuroimmunology or not in the future and taking neurobiology actually, helped me make that choice 😀 Also, engaging with classmates, professors and experts from diverse backgrounds during the courses sparks compelling discussions and brings unconventional ideas during teamwork.
Altogether, I think this programme has an interesting curriculum and acclaimed way of teaching where you combine theory with practice (where you conduct real experiments such as the one where the photo comes from – they are breast cancer cells under a special microscope). Despite choosing a different institution for my master’s thesis, I believe my LiU is a great teaching institution that has a lot to offer to curious and driven students.
/Aleksandra, Experimental and Medical Biosciences
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