Degree Requirements
To complete the program, a total of 120 credits (CFU) must be acquired. 1 CFU is conventionally set as corresponding to 8 hours of lessons plus 17 hours of personal study, or to 12 hours of laboratory experience plus 13 hours of personal study. Attendance to courses is strongly recommended for at least 70% of lessons and labs.
Of the 120 CFU, 77 credits are from Core Courses and 9 credits are from Elective Courses. The final 34 CFU must be acquired by the students performing experimental lab work (usually in a 6-8 months internship project yielding publication-quality research), writing a dissertation on its results and defending the dissertation.
Core Courses (with the number of CFU and the relative scientific discipline (SSD) according to Italian regulations). Some courses are administered in two modules.
| Core Courses (common to ALL students) | CFU | SSD |
| Industrial Biochemistry and Bioinformatics (two modules) | 11 | BIO/10 – BIO/11 |
| Applied Immunology | 6 | MED/04 |
| Nanobiotechnology | 6 | BIO/13 |
| Pharmaceutical applications of plant metabolites | 6 | BIO/04 |
| Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Chemistry (two modules) | 12 | BIO/14 – CHIM/08 |
| Core courses for the curriculum Applied Biotechnology | ||
| Plant Biomass and Phytotechnologies | 6 | BIO/01 |
| Applied Ecology | 6 | BIO/07 |
| Applied Economics | 6 | SECS-P/06 |
| Microbial Technology | 6 | BIO/19 |
| Gene expression and regulation | 6 | BIO/18 |
| Biosensor Technology | 6 | CHIM/01 |
| Core courses for the curriculum Clinical Research | ||
| Applied Physiopathology | 6 | MED/04 |
| Clinical Data Quality Management (two modules) | 6 | MED/09 |
| Clinical Research Development and Management (two modules) | 6 | MED/01 + SECS-P/10 |
| Clinical Research Methodology (two modules) | 6 | SECS‐S/02 |
| Drug Design and Development | 6 | CHIM/09 |
| Clinical trials-Regulatory Activities | 6 | IUS/09 |
Students must attend Elective Courses to totalize 9 CFU (or more). Elective activities are intended as an opportunity to deepen, complete and personalize the training path, in harmony with the training objectives of the course
In accordance, the following principles must orient the choice of elective courses in the M.Sc. in Biotechnology:
1) Students are warmly invited to attend the Elective courses included in the Educational program of this Master of Science (see below). These courses have been specifically designed to complement the training goals of this M. Sc.
2) As a complement students may choose Elective Courses offered by the related course in Pharmacy;
3) in compliance with the principle that this course is provided in English, attendance of elective courses or activities in Italian must be discussed with the coordinator, justified by clear educational reasons and, in any case, kept to a minimum (no more than 2 CFU);
4) Students willing to attend a curricular course (i.e. compulsory exams in other courses of study, including Pharmacy) in place of Elective courses, MUST preventively discuss with the coordinator of this possibility, in order to evaluate its coherence with the training goals and/or possible overlaps with our courses .
For the year 2023-2024 the following Elective Courses are proposed:
