91574 Biotechnology Solutions to Infectious Diseases
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Anti-requisite(s): 91559 Bacterial Pathogenesis AND 91569 Biotechnology Solutions to Infectious Diseases
Description
This subject exposes the students to a range of novel technologies that are playing a pivotal role in the advancement of infectious diseases diagnosis, therapy and prevention. The subject covers diagnostic technologies like pathogen sequencing, microbiome analysis, therapeutic technologies like genome editing, biomarker development, vaccine development, as well as new approaches to understanding antimicrobial resistance. Upon successful completion of this subject, the students should have not only an understanding of the science behind these technologies but also have an appreciation of the fast-evolving nature of this field and the challenges the world faces with the advent of new biotechnology.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
| 1. | Analyse the foundation of molecular biology methods relevant to the development of new technologies to tackle important public health issues caused by infectious diseases. |
|---|---|
| 2. | Identify how new biotechnologies are developed and applied to solve medical problems related to infectious diseases. |
| 3. | Critique and apply learned concepts to specific scenarios and support the knowledge with scientific literature. |
| 4. | Work professionally in a team environment to summaries and present findings of a research topic |
| 5. | Provide well-reasoned opinions on the future of biotechnology as it relates to infectious diseases. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the development of following course intended learning outcomes:
- Critically appraise and apply advanced knowledge and technical skills to discipline specific projects to inform professional practice in science and medical biotechnology. (1.1)
- Assess, argue for, and conduct independent research and solving complex problems by applying a research methodology to address a research need in a relevant professional context. (2.1)
- Develop, prepare, and engage, at times collaboratively, in safe, ethical, organised and transparent work practices that mitigate risk and contribute to solving global health problems in the context of science and medical biotechnology. (3.1)
- Reflectively discover, create, and evaluate processes used to determine the value, integrity, and relevance of multiple sources of information to derive innovative solutions to complex science and medical biotechnology problems. (4.1)
- Present and communicate complex ideas and justifications using appropriate communication approaches from a variety of methods (oral, written, visual) to communicate with discipline experts, scientists, industry, and the general public. (5.1)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
- Disciplinary knowledge Your disciplinary knowledge will be provided with online material for you to review and come prepared to discuss during the workshops. This material will give you the basic foundation for the workshops, and it will be assessed in the format of quizzes. The workshops are designed to be dynamic. You will learn from academics who regularly conduct research that contribute to the development of new technologies. Because these academics have different experiences and research backgrounds, they will give you diverse insights, perspectives, and perceived challenges in the field by guiding your group discussion. The laboratory prac, consists of a demonstration of an NGS library preparation. A video prepared at UTS Bioscience lab will guide the students through the step by step process of preparing the DNA for NGS sequencing. Through computer labs, you will have the opportunity to learn another important aspect of this process, which is data analysis and results interpretation.
- Research, inquiry and critical thinking Using guided online examples and computer labs, you will learn how experimental design and data analysis is applied to answer research questions. The workshops will allow you to understand how these research questions arise based on previous knowledge, how the scientific process is carried out. The information provided online, as well as the material presented during the workshops, will help you with different assessments in which you will have to apply critical thinking: Assessment 1 will consist of online quizzes that will provide adequate background and theory for workshop discussion. Assessment 2 will consist of answering the questions from the workshops and pracs and presenting the answers as a report. You will need to conduct independent literature research to support statements when answering applied questions. Assessment 3, is a video presentation. This is a group assessment, where you will be assigned to a specific topic (an infectious disease) and will have to present on recent developments of biotechnologies applied to a research topic.
- Professional, ethical and social responsibility You will have an opportunity to review the interactive online content of laboratory procedures. You will also have the opportunity to work on advanced data analysis. Technical and creative skills will be developed to investigate, analyse and synthesise complex information, problems, concepts and theories. You will then apply these skills to examine and critique established theories. Finally, you will practice the integration of these concepts and workshop exercises within the broader scope of the healthcare industry. You will have an opportunity to develop skills in the management of the work-load required for scientific-based practice and professional work. Time management will be developed through strictly time-limited practical and tutorial sessions.
- Reflection, Innovation, Creativity You will be encouraged to participate and engage in dynamic discussions with different academic experts in their field. These engagements will guide you to understand how new knowledge is generated and how this is translated into biotechnology and clinical applications to solve infectious diseases problems. These workshops will consist of discussing situations where biotechnology could play a relevant part.
- Communication You will be able to go through the process of data generation during pracs, and data analysis through computer labs. You will be required to elaborate answers on applied situations. For this, you will need to organize the information that you research and the concepts that you previously learned. You will also need to create a video presentation, summarizing the findings of your literature review
Teaching and learning strategies
You will need to review the online material and examples provided in Canvas to answer the quizzes that will provide you with the basic background content to come prepared for the workshop.
Although workshops do not have mandatory attendance, you are highly encouraged to join during the face-to-face sessions. This will be an opportunity for you to clear doubts about the main assessment report. You will need to work on the questions that will be part of your main assessment during these sessions.
Online content
The purpose of the online content is to give the students a foundation and basic concepts in molecular biology and background for specific workshop topics. These will be evaluated in quizzes that are due before the workshop session.
Workshops
The workshops are delivered by academics that are currently researching: pathogen genomics, quorum sensing, microbiome, vaccine development, biomarkers, gene editing, and microbiome. The workshops will be delivered interactively, so the students can discuss the research and applied technologies.
Practicals
Two laboratory practical sessions will be delivered face-to-face. In one practice session, the students will learn how to prepare an NGS library and the contents and theory of the methods will be assessed through questions. In the second practice session, the students will learn how to process samples for real-time PCR for gene expression.
Computer laboratories
These sessions will be delivered face-to-face or, alternatively, via live stream. The instructions for the computer laboratories will be provided in Canvas. The students are highly encouraged to attend due to the complexity of the analysis. Final questions of data interpretation will be part of the Assessment 2 final report. There will be three computer laboratories:
- Tuesday, August 27th: Face-to-face session to work on phylogenetic tree construction.
- Tuesday, September 24th: Face-to-face session to do NGS data analysis.
- Tuesday, November 8th: Face-to-face session to work on Biomarkers.
Feedback
To ensure that you have every opportunity to understand the subject material, feedback will be constantly available to you. Teaching staff will be available in practical classes and workshops for you to ask questions and expand your knowledge of the subject. While answering questions, the teaching staff will be asking you to apply logic and knowledge for you to answer your questions and thus gain understanding. The teaching staff are available during face-to-face contact time and via email. Also, forums on Canvas will be used for group discussions and general feedback.
You are expected to monitor Canvas on a regular basis for information or changes to scheduling, assessment tasks, lectures and tutorial times and locations.
You will get feedback from your peers using the SPARK for the video presentations. Rubrics will be available in Canvas for each assigned task.
Content (topics)
Infectious diseases are a major health problem around the world. Form something as simple as the common cold and flu to devastating and fatal diseases like HIV and Ebola every part of the globe is affected. The morbidity and mortality associated with both acute and chronic infectious diseases not only creates an economic burden but also causes a lot of social and psychological issues. This can turn into a vicious circle, making it difficult for the patient to return to normal life even after being cured.
Biotechnology can help prevent as well as eliminate some of these problems. You just need the right tools. Biotechnology plays a major role in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these diseases. Throughout this course, you will be introduced to multiple novel biotechnologies that have or will solve the problem of infectious diseases.
In this subject, you are going to be shown either through the practical classes that you attend, the computer labs you work through or the workshops that you participate in several biotechnologies. This subject will teach you to think about all the possibilities of the technologies out there and how they are being used to combat infectious diseases.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Short quizzes
| Intent: | This task assesses the following graduate attributes
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|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 1 and 2 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 1.1 |
| Type: | Quiz/test |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 37% |
| Criteria: | Automated marking online based on the correctness of the answer. |
Assessment task 2: Workshop report
| Intent: | This task assesses the following graduate attributes: 1. Disciplinary knowledge |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 2, 3 and 5 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1 and 5.1 |
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 38% |
| Length: | 250 words max. per question excluding references and figure and table legends |
| Criteria: | A marking rubric is provided in Canvas. The report will be marked by demonstrators. Assessment criteria are as follows:
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Assessment task 3: Group presentation
| Intent: | This task assesses the following graduate attributes, 1. Disciplinary knowledge |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 4 and 5 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 1.1, 2.1, 4.1 and 5.1 |
| Type: | Presentation |
| Groupwork: | Group, group assessed |
| Weight: | 25% |
| Criteria: | A marking rubric is provided on Canvas. At least 2 academics will grade each video. Assessment criteria are as follows: • Thorough literature review providing background outlining the research topic and new biotechnologies developed. • Clearly articulated methods used to develop recent biotechnology solutions. • Accurate interpretation of how these technologies have impacted in the control, treatment and/or diagnostic of infectious diseases. • Discussion of further directions for the research topic. |
Minimum requirements
Students are actively encouraged to attend all their scheduled learning activities and may expect that participation in learning activities will be required to complete assessment tasks successfully.