Scientific knowledge and discovery is at the heart of all our undergraduate degree programmes and our mission is to create life-long learners who are fired by a desire to add to the knowledge base through enquiry and investigation. Hence our students are given ample opportunity to undertake research during the course of their studies (e.g. Research Electives, Student Summer Research) and our academic staff are active researchers.
For students who wish to pursue a career in medical or biomedical research, the School offers an intercalated masters in medical science. This one year intercalated research programme is designed for students with 180 credits from their undergraduate medicine degree programme and graduate entry medicine students with a primary degree in a science-based discipline.
The School is committed to research that enhances our understanding disease with the ultimate aim of improving human health. It has over 75 principal research investigators with research grants under management to the value of approximately €35 million and annual research income of over €7.5 million.
Our research is focussed on key thematic areas of Biological Imaging, Inflammation and Infection, Vascular biology and Diabetes using many approaches including cellular and molecular biology, bioinformatics and proteomics, through whole organism disease models to patient–based clinical and population studies. This multidisciplinary strength provides a stimulating environment in which scientists and clinicians can interact in relevant translational research. Our portfolio of biomedical, clinical and translational research has over 75 principal investigators, 65 post-doctoral scientists and 250 doctoral students with grants under management worth approximately €35 million.
The School is a principal stakeholder in Ireland's premier biomedical research institute, the UCD Conway Institute for Biomolecular & Biomedical Research which is focused on developing a better understanding of the causes of disease, simpler and more reliable diagnostic tests, and more effective treatments. The School has built dedicated state-of-the-art clinical research units ( UCD Clinical Research Centre ) on several hospital sites to provide an integrated infrastructure for clinical and translational research. This clinical research centre supports approximately 50 clinical trial, biocollection or observational studies annually with over 5,000 patient contacts.
For further information on the research opportunities available as an Intercalated Masters in Medical Science, please contact Dr Noreen Sheehy (noreenDOTsheehyATucdDOTie).
Example
A previous participant, Seamus Flynn completed his intercalated research programme in 2009/2010 and will graduate with a Medicine (MB BCh BAO) degree and a MSc in Medical Science degree.
