The value of second year undergraduate students learning in vivo skills

Background and aims. Very few university undergraduate courses in the UK offer in vivo based practical classes and those that do are generally held in the final year of study. We provide an in vivo based module in second year which aims to provide students with an understanding of in vivo research and hands-on in vivo experience prior to an extramural year in industry or final year projects.

Summary of the course. The course is optional and available to Pharmacology, Biomedical Sciences, Biochemistry and Physiology BSc students. Students attend a home office licence training course in September enabling personal licences to be obtained by the start of the course in January. The module consists of five in vivo based practical classes (two of which are mouse based and three of which are rat based) and one rat dissection. An example of one of the practical classes is “The effect of Exendin-4 on glucose tolerance in mice”. In this practical the students gain confidence in handling mice, measuring blood glucose and carrying out an i.p. injection. They learn about blood glucose homeostasis, the incretin system and mechanisms of drugs treating diabetes. In addition they learn about individual variation in response to drug treatment and factorial designs. Ethics and experimental design is emphasised during practical classes and through an ethical review workshop and a session held by the National Centre for Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research. Students are given training in calculating drug doses, statistical analysis of their data and in writing scientific articles. Lectures aim to introduce the students to a wide range of animal models of disease outlining both the use and the shortcomings of the models. The module is assessed by 50% coursework and 50% written examination.

Outcomes. In each year we have a capacity of 24 students and since, the first intake of students in the academic year 2008-2009, 138 students have completed the module with an additional 21 students currently enrolled. All students have successfully carried out a range of in vivo methods including intraperitoneal injections in mice and rats and catheterisation of vessels in rats. Feedback on the course has been consistently high with students rating particularly highly the in vivo experiences they gained as well as the training in writing scientific articles. Many comment that carrying out the experiments themselves gives them an enhanced understanding of in vivo research. 32% of students who took the course then spent an extramural year in industry compared to around 7% of students in the School of Bioscience Education who did not study the module. Although we acknowledge that students who wish to spend a year in industry are more likely to apply to our course, students report that they feel their participation on the course was beneficial when being interviewed for an extramural year placement. From the first five years of the course, we have been able to track the postgraduate destination of 74 out of 91 students. Of these 74 students, 26 (35%) are now studying for, or have completed, a PhD. Around half of these students expected to use their in vivo skills during the course of their PhD. A further ten students out of the 74 we could track (13.5%) went on to choose a MSc and MSci course, six of which contained in vivo components. Fifteen students (21%) are studying postgraduate entry medicine, dentistry or veterinary sciences.

Conclusion. Students highly rated the opportunity to gain some in vivo experience before embarking on an extramural year. In addition, they reported that the module aided their learning and understanding of in vivo sciences. More than half of the students embarked on further studies after their degree in which they either go on to use their in vivo skills directly or study courses in which the knowledge and skills gained from the module are relevant.