Surgery University of Cambridge

Overview

The Surgery course from the University of Cambridge introduces students to research skills and specialist knowledge. Its main aims are:

• to give students with relevant experience at a first-degree level the opportunity to carry out focused research in the discipline under close supervision; and

• to give students the opportunity to acquire or develop skills and expertise relevant to their research interests.

Central to our research strategy in the Department of Surgery is a strong clinical emphasis and a shared mission to improve the surgical management of disease through basic and translational research, together with clinical trials. Our ‘bench to bedside’ focus links laboratory work to applied clinical research and a key feature of the Department is the close integration of University and NHS surgeons.

Our main clinical themes are:

• Transplantation
• Trauma and orthopaedic surgery
• Urology
• Vascular surgery

These broad clinical themes are aligned to world class underpinning research strengths in stem cell medicine, immunology, organ perfusion, cell biology and surgical oncology.

Further training is provided within the Addenbrooke's Biomedical campus and elsewhere in the University and includes postgraduate workshops on research techniques, research seminars, and postgraduate student education seminars on generic subjects such as intellectual property rights, statistics, bioinformatics, communication skills, writing a thesis or paper, entrepreneurship.

During the course of this study, programme students will be expected to:

• read and assimilate relevant background information;
• formulate a clear and well-defined hypothesis;
• design an experimental strategy to address the hypothesis;
• acquire the necessary skills and carry out laboratory work;
• interpret experimental data appropriately and draw sound conclusions; and
• write a suitably detailed and formatted thesis.