Unit information: Engineering Biology Research Project 1 in 2026/27

Unit name	Engineering Biology Research Project 1
Unit code	SEMTM0005
Credit points	60
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Marucci
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	Foundational training (delivered in Oxford, does not bear credit).
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one	None
School/department	School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology
Faculty	Faculty of Engineering

Unit Information

Why is this unit important?

This unit will provide students with first-hand experience of individual research focused on open problems in Engineering Biology. Projects will have at least two academic/industry supervisors with complementary expertise (e.g. experimental and modelling), with at least one supervisor from the student’s home institution.

How does the unit fit into your programme of study?

This unit offers a unique opportunity to perform individual research on challenging EngBio projects, supervised by industrialists and academics. It will provide key research and soft skills and will allow students to experience working in different groups and on different topics before choosing their PhD projects. For most students, one of their individual EngBio Research Projects will become the foundation of their PhD.

Your learning on this unit

Overview of the content

Students will work on individual projects as full-time researchers over 11 weeks.

The research project will align with one or more of four major focus areas:

• Robust methods for bioengineering. This theme will consider the integration of control engineering methodologies within the context of EngBio and explore the in silico and in vivo implementation of control algorithms to ensure reliable functions are maintained in complex and varying real-world environments. Exemplar projects for this focus area include developing robotic platforms to automate and accelerate biodesign and prototyping; feedback control-based drug regimen design for cancer treatment; engineering of robust biocontrollers for metabolic engineering; and resource-aware gene network design.
• Rational biomolecular & biosystems design. Improvements in computational design can facilitate de novo design of biomolecules and their predictable assembly into larger, functional biosystems. This theme will build on advances in nanotechnology, structural modelling of proteins, and molecular dynamics to push the boundaries of rational biomolecular design for specific applications. Exemplar projects for this focus area include nanoparticle-based vaccine design; metamaterials design and engineering; blood-cell engineering; synthetic protocells; and high precision micro- and nano-encapsulation for healthcare.
• Evolution-guided biodesign. A characteristic of biology is its ability to evolve. However, evolution is often overlooked in EngBio. This theme will tackle this issue by demonstrating the unavoidable impact of evolution on the stability and function of biological designs and by presenting methodologies to assess and design for evolution. Designing for evolution can be done either by reducing the impact of evolutionary change to increase the robustness of engineered biosystems or by harnessing evolution itself as part of the design process (e.g., directed evolution). Exemplar projects for this focus area include evolution-aware biodesign workflows; directed evolution of bacteriophage to address antimicrobial resistance; evolvable cellular communities for healthcare; and evolution-guided enzyme design.
• Digital cells & AI. Digital science is transforming how we approach biological design. This theme will build on advances in large mathematical models of entire cellular processes (e.g., transcription, translation, and metabolism) as well as on new data-centric approaches founded on AI and machine learning for the digital design of biological systems. Exemplar projects for this project area include generative AI approaches to de novo peptide and protein design; whole-cell model and AI-guided chassis design; design of microbial communities for energy recovery from waste water; and development of mechano-chemical models for engineering wound healing in living tissues.

Projects will be co-created with supervisors; there is the possibility to have industrial supervisors, or to complete the project at a partner’s group/industry.

How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit

Student will have gained new research skills and an understanding of challenges in the bioindustry. They will also have learned how to effectively work in an interdisciplinary supervisory setting, how to write a scientific report and how to defend their projects in a viva.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:

1. Co-design a research project in Engineering Biology
2. Undertake original research activity in Engineering Biology while adopting a high standard of record keeping and management of information
3. Plan and prepare a concise, written technical report
4. Critically discuss their results

How you will learn

Ongoing project supervision will be provided by regular meetings with project supervisors. Students will also have access to skills training workshops and online resources covering topics from project management and managing your supervisor to writing up your report.

How you will be assessed

Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):

Review of project plans upon discussions with supervisors; discussions of report drafts before submission (drafts to be shared with supervisors at least 3 weeks before final report submission deadline).

Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):

Assessment 1 (70%): individual project report, written in the style of a scientific publication (ILOs 1-3)

Assessment 2 (30%): oral viva ((ILO 4)

When assessment does not go to plan

Re-assessment takes the same form as the original summative assessment. If you pass one of the summative assessments, then your mark for this can be carried forward towards your final mark and you will only have to be reassessed on the assessment that you did not pass.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. SEMTM0005).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.

The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.