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Old Aberdeen Campus

Content

Genetics is the study of the inherited differences between individuals and is central to biology, medicine and biotechnology. It allows us to understand normal events such as development, growth and ageing in terms of the underlying molecular machinery of the cell and helps explain how these processes go wrong in disease.

When organisms reproduce, the offspring tend to resemble their parents, but they are not identical to either parent, nor are they simply a mixture of the two parents. Genetics is concerned with explaining the behaviour of inherited characteristics, in terms of the underlying genetic machinery which turns a single cell (the fertilised egg) into a fly, a worm, or a human. Genetics also explains how over longer time scales, living things change, or evolve, to produce the dazzling diversity of life.

Year 1: Introduction to Medical Sciences; The Cell; Chemistry for the Life Sciences 1; Chemistry for the Life Sciences 2.

Year 2: Genes and Evolution; Molecular Biology of the Gene; Foundation Skills for Medical Sciences; Energy for Life; Microbes, Infection and Immunity; Research Skills for Medical Sciences.

Year 3: The Molecular Biology of the Cell; Genetics; The Molecular Control of Cell Function OR; Fundamentals of Immunology.

Year 4: Honours Genetics – Option 1; Honours Genetics – Option 2; Honours Advanced Molecular Biology; Genetics Honours Research Project.

Entry Requirements

2025 entry requirements:

Standard entry:
4 Highers at BBBB (by end of S5) including 2 maths or science subjects by end S6 plus English, Maths and Chemistry or Physics at National 5. Those with Highers at BBB by end of S5 are encouraged to apply.

For second year entry you would require the above plus 3 Advanced Highers at ABB including Biology and another maths or science subject at AB or BA.

Widening access entry:
2 Highers at BB (by end of S5). Additional Highers/Advanced Highers in S6.

1 Foundation Apprenticeship is accepted in place of a non-essential Higher.