MSc Medical Microbiology London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)

Award	Attendance	Study	Duration	Start	Domestic fees	International fees
MSc	On-Campus	Full-time	1 years	September	find out	find out
MSc	On-Campus	Part-time	2 years	September	find out	find out

Course fee notes

For up to date fees, please see our fees and funding pages: https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/fees-funding

Course overview

This programme provides comprehensive knowledge and practical training in the spread of microorganisms (predominantly bacterial and viral pathogens), disease causation and diagnosis and treatment of pathogens significant to public health. The increasing incidence of microbial infections worldwide is being compounded by the rapid evolution of drug-resistant variants and opportunistic infections by other organisms. The curriculum reflects the importance of genomics and molecular techniques in both diagnostics and the study of pathogenesis.

By the end of the programme students will be able to:

demonstrate advanced knowledge and understanding of the nature of pathogenic microorganisms (predominantly viruses and bacteria) and basic criteria used in the classification/taxonomy of these microorganisms
explain the modes of transmission of pathogenic microorganisms
demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the mechanisms of microbial pathogenesis and the outcomes of infections, including chronic microbial infections
distinguish between and critically assess the classical and modern approaches to the development of therapeutic agents and vaccines for the prevention of human microbial diseases
demonstrate knowledge of the laboratory diagnosis of microbial diseases and practical skills, including the isolation and characterisation of specific microbes in clinical specimens
carry out a range of advanced skills and laboratory techniques, for example the purification of isolated microbial pathogens and analyses of their proteins and nucleic acids for downstream applications such as gene cloning and sequencing studies
demonstrate research skills, including designing experiments, analysing results and troubleshooting and critically assessing the scientific literature.