Venues

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

4 Highers at AAAB (by end of S5) including two maths or science subjects plus English, Maths and Chemistry or Physics at National 5.

For advanced entry to year 2, you would require 3 Advanced Highers at AAB including two maths or science subjects.