Information for the student – Advanced Microbiology

The Master's Degree in Advanced Microbiology provides students with a solid specialization in Microbiology for integration into the industrial, service, healthcare, and academic sectors, as well as in public and private research centers.

The Master's Degree places a special emphasis on the integrated and multidisciplinary training of students. Central aspects include stimulating students' critical thinking, assessment, and problem-solving skills, developing specialists with the autonomy and decision-making capacity to confront and resolve scientific and methodological problems, draw conclusions, and work independently.

The Master's Degree's structure, based on interactive subjects, theoretical content and practical activities, in a collaborative environment between students and faculty, and within the framework of research projects and internships in professional settings outside the University, is a fundamental tool for achieving its general objectives, which are:

- To provide solid and up-to-date training in basic, methodological, and applied knowledge of Microbiology to graduates and professionals related to healthcare, the environment, the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and biotechnology.

- To provide a scientific foundation and methodological skills for initiating doctoral theses in the microbiological field and for training researchers in basic and applied research in this area of knowledge.

- To train specialists in advanced aspects of microbiology for employment in industrial, healthcare, and service companies, both in production and analysis, as well as in R&D&I.

Microbiology is currently a common and basic discipline in all fields of specialization related to Biotechnology, Biomedical Sciences, and Environmental Sciences, given that microorganisms play an essential role in the transformation of organic matter, in geochemical changes, and in the production of diseases, both in humans and animals. This makes the importance of Microbiology undeniable in the industrial, food, environmental, and healthcare fields.

The breadth of study topics, the advanced and high level of knowledge development, as well as the increasing application of methodologies to cover all these areas of Microbiology justify the inclusion of two specialties in the degree: "Health Microbiology" and "Microbial Biotechnology and Environmental Microbiology," in order to provide adequate scientific and research training in the latest advances in Microbiology in these two fields or specialties.

The specialty of "Health Microbiology" encompasses all aspects of the relationships established between humans or animals and microorganisms capable of causing disease. This encompasses everything from their isolation, cultivation, and identification to the study of their sensitivities to antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs. It also includes the study of the human microbiome and its relationship with certain pathologies. Consequently, it equips microbiologists with the necessary training to guarantee the quality of care in hospitals, clinics, and healthcare services in general, where microbiology services are key components of the healthcare system.

The specialty of "Microbial Biotechnology and Environmental Microbiology" focuses on the study and exploitation of microorganisms to obtain products useful to humans, on food quality control and the application of microorganisms in the production of certain foods, as well as on the study of the role of microorganisms in geochemical changes and therefore, in the recycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, etc. Consequently, it qualifies microbiologists with the necessary training to develop tasks in the environmental, industrial and biotechnological fields, providing knowledge to perform key tasks in water treatment, sanitation and purification companies; waste recycling and utilization; contaminant degradation; food companies (food control and processing); pharmaceutical companies (control, drug development and vaccine production); and in general in industrial and biotechnology companies.