Your complete guide to studying Molecular Sciences

Everything you need to know about studying Molecular Sciences in 2024

part of Natural Sciences & Mathematics

What is Molecular Sciences?

At its core, Molecular Sciences is the study of biological and chemical processes at the molecular level. As a student in this field, you will unravel the mysteries of life by diving deep into the interactions, structures, and functions of molecules, offering a microscopic perspective on the macroscopic world.

Molecular Sciences Specialisations

Molecular Sciences boasts a range of exciting specialisations:

  • Biochemistry: Exploring the chemical processes within living organisms.
  • Molecular Biology: Studying the molecular basis of biological activity.
  • Molecular Genetics: Investigating the role of genes at a molecular level.
  • Molecular Physics: Understanding the physical properties of molecules.

For those aspiring to niche expertise, the Master's in Molecular Sciences is a popular choice. Notably, one of the most common specialisations in Molecular Sciences is Molecular Medicine, which connects molecular understanding to health and disease.

What will you learn during a Molecular Sciences programme?

During a Molecular Sciences degree:

  • You'll decipher the intricate dance of atoms and molecules.
  • Learn cutting-edge techniques, from gene editing to X-ray crystallography.
  • Understand the molecular basis of diseases, treatments, and life itself.
  • Grasp the importance of molecular processes in various industries.

Essential courses to expect include:

  • Organic Chemistry: The chemistry of carbon-containing compounds.
  • Molecular Genetics: The detailed study of the molecular structure and function of genes.
  • Protein Biochemistry: Examining the world of proteins and their functions.
  • Cellular Biology: Investigating the smallest unit of life in detail.
  • Quantum Chemistry: Bridging physics and chemistry to understand molecular behaviour.

Molecular sciences are taught at universities and research institutions worldwide. Researchers in this field work on a wide range of projects, from basic scientific inquiry to applied research with real-world implications.

Skills required for a degree in Molecular Sciences

Critical thinking, strong analytical skills, and curiosity about the microscopic world are vital. Practical laboratory skills, data interpretation, and collaborative teamwork also form the crux of Molecular Sciences degree requirements.

What can you do with a Molecular Sciences degree?

Molecular Sciences paves the way for numerous fulfilling careers:

  • Biotechnologist: Utilising molecular techniques to innovate in medicine, agriculture, and more.
  • Genetic Counsellor: Advising individuals and families on genetic disorders.
  • Research Scientist: Driving forward the frontier of molecular knowledge.
  • Pharmaceutical Developer: Creating the next generation of medicines.
  • Forensic Scientist: Applying molecular knowledge in criminal investigations.

For those contemplating the jobs you can get with a Molecular Sciences degree, it's clear that the options are both varied and impactful. Molecular sciences have numerous practical applications in various fields, including medicine (drug development, molecular diagnostics), materials science (nanotechnology, advanced materials), environmental science (pollution monitoring, remediation), and energy (catalysis, energy storage).

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View all PhDs in Molecular Sciences. Keep in mind you can also study an online PhDs in Molecular Sciences.

Interesting programmes for you

Best Universities for Molecular Sciences on PhDPortal

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Universities Location U.S. News & World Report Ranking (2018)
Harvard University Cambridge, United States 1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, United States 2
University of Cambridge Cambridge, United Kingdom 3
Stanford University Stanford, United States 4
University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, United States 5
University of Oxford Oxford, United Kingdom 6
University of Washington Seattle, United States 7
Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, United States 8
Yale University New Haven, United States 9
University of California, San Diego San Diego, United States 10
University of Toronto Pickering, Canada 11
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, United States 12
Washington University in St. Louis Saint Louis, United States 13
University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, United States 14
Cornell University Ithaca, United States 15
Karolinska Institute Stockholm, Sweden 16
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Los Angeles, United States 17
Columbia University New York City, United States 18
University of Chicago Chicago, United States 19
University College London (UCL) London, United Kingdom 20
University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, Denmark 21
University of Michigan Ann Arbor, United States 22
Imperial College London London, United Kingdom 23
Baylor College of Medicine Houston, United States 24
The University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, United Kingdom 25
Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich München, Germany 26
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, United States 27
King's College London London, United Kingdom 28
Sorbonne University Paris, France 29
Erasmus University Rotterdam Rotterdam, Netherlands 30
Duke University Durham, United States 31
Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands 32
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, United States 33
McGill University Montréal, Canada 34
University of Helsinki Helsinki, Finland 34
University of Queensland Saint Lucia, Australia 36
Heidelberg University Heidelberg, Germany 37
Rockefeller University New York City, United States 38
Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands 39
University of Southern California Los Angeles, United States 40
The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan 40
Melbourne Business School Melbourne, Australia 42
National University of Singapore Singapore, Singapore 43
KU Leuven Brussels, Belgium 44
Uppsala University Uppsala, Sweden 45
University of Groningen Groningen, Netherlands 46
Vanderbilt University Nashville, United States 47
University of Barcelona Barcelona, Spain 48
University of California, Davis Davis, United States 48
Boston University Boston, United States 50
Lund University Lund, Sweden 51
Radboud University Nijmegen - Summer School Nijmegen, Netherlands 51
Technical University of Munich München, Germany 53
Queen Mary University of London London, United Kingdom 54
University of Utah Salt Lake City, United States 55
University of Tartu Tartu, Estonia 56
Pennsylvania State University State College, United States 57
University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands 58
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Manhattan, United States 59
University of Paris Paris, France 60
California Institute of Technology - Caltech Pasadena, United States 61
Kyoto University Kyoto, Japan 62
Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot, Israel 63
University of California, Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, United States 64
University of Zurich Zürich, Switzerland 65
University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada 66
The University of Manchester Manchester, United Kingdom 66
New York University New York City, United States 68
University of Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland 69
Peking University Beijing, China 70
ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Switzerland 71
Emory University Atlanta, United States 72
Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona, Spain 72
University of Bristol Bristol, United Kingdom 72
University of Glasgow Glasgow, United Kingdom 75
Yeshiva University New York City, United States 76
The Ohio State University Upper Arlington, United States 77
University of Eastern Finland Kuopio, Finland 78
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin Berlin, Germany 79
Aarhus University Aarhus, Denmark 80
University of Sydney Sydney, Australia 81
King Abdulaziz University Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 82
Tsinghua University Beijing, China 83
Northwestern University Evanston, United States 84
University of Oulu Oulu, Finland 85
University of Leicester Leicester, United Kingdom 86
University of Strasbourg Strasbourg, France 86
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands 86
University of Wisconsin Madison Madison, United States 89
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem, Israel 90
University of Bonn Bonn, Germany 90
University of Cologne Köln, Germany 92
University of Geneva Genève, Switzerland 93
University of Oslo Oslo, Norway 94
University of Minnesota Twin Cities Minneapolis, United States 95
Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv Yaffo, Israel 96
University of Freiburg Freiburg, Germany 97
The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR) 97
The University of Western Australia Perth, Australia 97
Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China 100
University of Massachusetts Medical School - Worcester Worcester, United States 100
Cardiff University Cardiff, United Kingdom 102
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland 103
The University of Milan Sesto San Giovanni, Italy 104
The University of Exeter Exeter, United Kingdom 105
University of Montreal Montréal, Canada 106
University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, United States 106
University of Basel Basel, Switzerland 108
Princeton University Princeton, United States 109
Wageningen University and Research Wageningen, Netherlands 110
University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia 111
Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Steglitz, Germany 112
Ghent University Ledeberg, Belgium 112
University of Maryland Baltimore Baltimore, United States 114
Vita-Salute San Raffaele University Milano, Italy 114
Humboldt University Berlin Berlin, Germany 116
University of Gothenburg Göteborg, Sweden 117
Osaka University Osaka-shi, Japan 118
University of Sao Paulo São Paulo, Brazil 118
University of Georgia Athens, United States 118
Paris Diderot University Paris, France 118
University of Tampere Tampere, Finland 122
University of Birmingham Birmingham, United Kingdom 123
Oregon Health & Science University Portland, United States 124
University of Tübingen Tübingen, Germany 125
Hannover Medical School Hannover, Germany 126
University of Göttingen Göttingen, Germany 127
University of Paris Sud Orsay, France 128
Monash University Clayton, Australia 129
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Urbana, United States 129
Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom 131
Kyushu University Fukuoka, Japan 132
Seoul National University Anyang, South Korea 133
University of Hamburg Hamburg, Germany 133
University of Dundee Dundee, United Kingdom 135
Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, United States 136
University of Ottawa Ottawa, Canada 137
University of Liverpool Liverpool, United Kingdom 138
The University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, United States 139
University of Southampton Southampton, United Kingdom 140
University of Sheffield Sheffield, United Kingdom 141
Rutgers University New Brunswick, United States 142
University of California, Irvine (UCI) Irvine, United States 143
Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, United States 143
Goethe University Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main, Germany 145
University of Miami Coral Gables, United States 145
Tohoku University Sendai-shi, Japan 147
University of Kiel Kiel, Germany 147
University of Texas at Austin Austin, United States 149
University of Vienna Vienna, Austria 150
Umea University Umeå, Sweden 151
Fudan University Shanghai, China 152
Claude Bernard Lyon 1 Villeurbanne, France 153
Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou, China 153
The Chinese University of Hong Kong Shatin, Hong Kong (SAR) 155
Stony Brook University Stony Brook, United States 156
Ulm University Ulm, Germany 156
TU Dresden Dresden, Germany 158
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology Haifa, Israel 159
Trinity College Dublin Dublin, Ireland 160
University of Münster Münster, Germany 161
University of Bologna Bologna, Italy 162
University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, United States 163
University of Leeds Leeds, United Kingdom 164
Tufts University Medford, United States 165
University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand 165
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) Nuremberg, Germany 165
University of Virginia Charlottesville, United States 168
Autonomous University of Barcelona Barcelona, Spain 169
Tor Vergata University of Rome Roma, Italy 170
Medical University of Graz Graz, Austria 171
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf Düsseldorf, Germany 172
University of Bern Bern, Switzerland 173
University of Padua Padua, Italy 174
University of Colorado at Boulder Boulder, United States 175
University of Florida Gainesville, United States 176
Sapienza University of Rome Roma, Italy 177
University of Duisburg-Essen Essen, Germany 177
University of Porto Porto, Portugal 177
University of Rochester Rochester, United States 180
University of Nottingham Nottingham, United Kingdom 181
McMaster University Hamilton, Canada 182
The University of Arizona Tucson, United States 182
The University of Iowa Iowa City, United States 184
University of Turku Turku, Finland 184
Charles University Prague, Czech Republic 186
University of Missouri - Columbia Columbia, United States 187
Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis Indianapolis, United States 188
Medical University of Innsbruck Innsbruck, Austria 188
University of Lübeck Lübeck, Germany 188
Brown University Providence, United States 191
Aix-Marseille University Marseille, France 191
University of Warwick Coventry, United Kingdom 193
China Agricultural University Beijing, China 194
University of Bergen Bergen, Norway 194
Nagoya University Nagoya, Japan 196
Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, United States 197
Maastricht University Maastricht, Netherlands 198
University of Montpellier Montpellier, France 199
Stockholm University Stockholm, Sweden 200
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