Official Master's Degree in Advanced Biotechnology

Ideal student profile

The ideal applicant profile is a student on a degree in Biotechnology or another degree with a grounding in biological or technological sciences related to this field. In addition, master's degree students should ideally be motivated by research in the fields of Biotechnology, and be able to specialise in the industrial or therapeutic field. They should demonstrate a critical spirit, the ability to develop their abilities effectively in multidisciplinary and international environments and with initiative, have basic computer skills, the capacity for abstraction and logical reasoning, a highly developed practical sense, a sense of organisation and method, the capacity for creation and innovation, and the skills required to work in a research laboratory.

Knowledge

• Solve problems in a professional biotechnological context of innovation and research, considering their ethical, economic, legal, gender and environmental dimensions in the development of scientific and technological solutions.
• Identify environments related to Synthetic Biology, Systems and Metabolic Engineering and Microbial Biotechnology from a broad, multidisciplinary perspective.
• Relate knowledge of microbial genetics and physiology to bioprocess engineering methodologies for "Cell Factory" applications.
• Relate different emerging methodologies and tools in the fields of -omics, systems biology (biocomputing) and synthetic biology to enzyme engineering and metabolic engineering.
• List the biological, molecular, and methodological principles underpinning microorganisms for application to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.
• Cite high-performance analytical (omics platforms) and computational (systems biology) tools for the quantitative, integrative and global analysis of the physiology of industrial microorganisms.
• Distinguish between biomolecules whose function/dysfunction intervenes in human pathologies.

Skills

• Apply solutions in a professional biotechnological innovation and research context.
• Provide the knowledge necessary to define the basis or opportunities for originality in the development and/or application of ideas in a biotechnology research context.
• Publicly defend scientific work related to Biotechnology, integrating the knowledge and skills acquired in the master's degree, while demonstrating the ability to learn autonomously and effectively communicate research results.
• Apply knowledge of genetics, microbial physiology and bioprocess engineering methodologies to develop the "Cell Factory".
• Apply different methodologies and tools from the field of -omics, systems biology (biocomputing) and synthetic biology to enzyme engineering and metabolic engineering.
• Analyse the biological, molecular and methodological principles of microorganisms for their application to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.
• Publicly defend scientific work on topics related to Biotechnology, integrating the knowledge, competences and skills acquired in the master's degree.

Competences

• Manage projects in the biotechnology industry, considering the transfer of knowledge to society and taking into account possible sex/gender-based inequalities.
• Work with biological methodologies and principles underpinning the microbial production of recombinant proteins.
• Use one’s own methodologies for the rational design and improvement (synthetic biology and metabolic engineering) of enzymes, organisms and cell lines for industrial and therapeutic applications.
• Integrate knowledge of the current state of biocatalysis, its fields of application, the different classes of biotransformation and the design of a biocatalytic process for industrial application (Industrial Biotechnology Specialty).
• Integrate the content of the metabolic pathways in living organisms under normal, pathological or exogenously modified conditions (Specialty: molecular biotechnology and therapeutics).
• Work in a multidisciplinary team.
• Evaluate alternatives to biotechnological projects.