This one-year research-based postgraduate course is based mainly in structural biology labs at the South Kensington campus. The course provides in-depth training of all major structural molecular biology techniques including its applications in drug discovery. It is an excellent training course for students to pursue a career in research with a focus on structural biology.

Knowing the structure of a protein is vital to understand how the protein works. With many structure determination techniques becoming semi-automatic and routine, there will be a requirement for structural biology researchers who can understand how to use complementary techniques to derive biological function from structure. It is therefore essential that trained structural biologists (for both academia and industry) have a solid background across all macromolecular structural determination techniques.

This Masters in Research (MRes) seeks to build such a solid foundation. Students will spend the majority of the year in laboratory-based research in one or two structural biology labs at, or associated with, Imperial, with opportunities to learn a wide range of skills in biological NMR, electon cryomicroscopy, structural bioinformatics, molecular dynamics, x-ray crystallography, or mass spectrometry.

Students also attend a series of lectures covering protein structural principles and structure determination techniques, and workshops on skills needed to succeed in research including networking, time management, writing, and wellbeing.

Workshops and seminars in transferable skills are organised by the Graduate School.