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About the department of clinical, pharmaceutical and biological sciences

All of the programmes within our department have a strong emphasis on professionalism and patient centred outcomes.

We partner closely with the NHS, pharmaceutical and biotech industries to ensure all of our students benefit from programmes designed to meet the ever-changing demands of their future employers.

A wide range of NHS practitioners and industry professionals are involved in the design and teaching of all of our programmes ensuring they keep up to date with the latest issues and challenges faced in the real world of employment.

Facilities

The biosciences facilities that our students use on a regular basis during their studies are modern and include the latest equipment.  Students on our courses spent more time working on practical projects in our laboratories compared to other institutions.

Bioscience Labs

Science Building accords us with world-class laboratories for our teaching and research.

The building provides spacious, naturally lit laboratories and social areas which create an environment that fosters multi-disciplinary learning and research.

Our biosciences laboratories include facilities for:

  • nucleic acid analysis
  • fermentation biotechnology
  • cell culture
  • molecular biology
  • pharmacology
  • microbiology
  • protein analysis
  • advanced imaging.

Specialist equipment

There are a number of facilities which have high speed internet access for bioinformatics that are ideal for:

  • chemical and biomedical analysis
  • genetics and cell biology research.

Nutrition and Dietetics Labs

Our nutrition and dietetics laboratories allow students to prepare and analyse food and nutritional values for a variety of diets and metabolisms.

This is a fully equipped domestic scale teaching kitchen with several work stations that can accommodate up to 21 students. The lab is used for basic cooking skills, modifying recipes to meet special dietary requirements and to learn about the different cultural influences on food. Students also use the lab for developing their own teaching skills and some undertake their final year research projects for example exploring thickness needed for patients with swallowing difficulties.

We have a range of different resources in the lab including:

  • a diverse range of food models used in teaching
  • equipment used to to guide portion size eg plates, bowls
  • examples of specific dietary products eg gluten free and allergy related alternative foods
  • library of product information
  • teaching resources used for specific population groups eg pregnant women, children and older people living in care homes.

Nutrition and dietetic students will have the opportunity to use the world-class laboratories of the Science building. The new building provides spacious, naturally lit laboratories and social areas which create an environment that fosters multi-disciplinary learning and research.

At the University of Hertfordshire, we place great importance on making sure you are prepared for working in your chosen industry. As part of this, we try to make sure you have the best facilities available to you because of this many of our courses have practical simulation included as core elements. In Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, this is seen within all departments. These patient-facing courses require students to learn in simulated real-life scenarios in order to be professionals upon graduation.

Medical Simulation Suites

We have a range of simulation suites for exactly this purpose, enabling our students to become familiar with different pieces of medical, monitoring and testing equipment. Each lab is equipped with audio and visual monitoring so you can watch best practice and learn from reflection of your own practice. We work with a range of actors, surrogate patients and state-of-the-art simulated mannequins to help recreate these real-life working environments. The Clinical Simulation Centre in the Health Research Building is a multi-disciplinary learning environment with a range of teaching and simulation facilities including; ITU/ward simulation area, simulated G.P. surgery and counselling room as well as a mock pharmacy and optical laboratories.

Take a virtual tour of our clinical simulation suites.

High and low fidelity manikins

All programmes have access to a range of high and low fidelity manikins that cover all ages from premature babies up to elderly people and everything in between! These state-of-the-art manikins can receive a whole host of different procedures depending on the learning session. They can be independently controlled and programmed by our academics and simulation technicians to give you a specific learning experience. Don’t be surprised if they talk to you, breathe, blink, bleed or even give birth!

To complete the practical skills learning, we have a vast array of the latest specialised manikins to support students to learn those vital practical skills before they meet a real patient! These manikins come in a variety of skin tones and ages to represent our diverse student and staff community.

We invest in experience

The department invests heavily in student placements from the very beginning of most degree programmes and uses a clinical simulation to allow students to practise their skills in a safe environment before they come in to contact with real patients. Inter-professional working and collaboration is a central theme of the department.

The University has invested heavily and continues to do so to ensure that the department has the latest state of the art facilities and equipment to deliver cutting edge teaching, training and research.

Thriving research community

The department has a thriving research community focused around topical drug delivery and toxicology, pharmacology and patient safety. 72% of our research was recently classed as internationally or nationally excellent.

This year we are celebrating 10 years of the MPharm degree at Hertfordshire and are launching our re-vamped Pharmaceutical Science degree and our brand new innovative integrated Masters in optometry.

The research interests of the pharmaceutics group are focused on drug delivery to the skin, lungs, other mucosal tissues, nanopharmaceutics and toxicology.

Within the pharmaceutics group projects are currently being funded by the:

Research also contributes significantly to the MPharm programme via the Research Methods and Research Project modules, which integrates teaching and research and also allows many pharmaceutics project students to complete a project in conjunction with an industrial partner.