Theory sessions

A total of 8 hours of classroom sessions will be conducted with the full group. During these sessions, the seminars offered throughout the course will be presented and discussed. Each seminar will be introduced by a group of two students who have attended it. Each student will be required to present one seminar during the course, while the rest of the class will be expected to ask questions.

Students in the audience will carry out a critical evaluation of their peers’ presentations following a rubric provided by the teaching staff.

Participation in this activity is mandatory in order to be assessed and to pass the module.

Seminars sessions

Students are required to attend and participate in the seminars scheduled within the master’s programme. Two types of seminars are defined: compulsory and optional.

Compulsory seminars

Between 10 and 12 seminars will be scheduled per academic year, directly related to the other modules of the master’s program. Students must attend at least 8 of these seminars and may choose which ones to attend.

At the beginning of each semester, a preliminary list of seminars will be provided. This list may be modified during the semester (addition of new seminars, cancellations, or date changes). Any modifications will be communicated in advance through the module’s Virtual Campus.

Examples of lecturers who regularly deliver these seminars include: Óscar Zaragoza (Instituto de Carlos III-CNM), Martí Llocaret (IBMB-CSIC), I. Fonts / A. González (UAB), I. Zapico (HSCSP-RI), J. C. Escolà (HSCSP-RI), J. L. Sánchez (HSCSP-RI), I. González (Hospital Clínic Barcelona, Biomedical Diagnostic Centre), A. Papageorgiou (TCB, Finland), Guillermo Velasco (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Jordi Moreno (CRAG, Barcelona), and Marcus Buschbeck (Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute).

Participation in this activity is mandatory in order to pass the module.

Optional seminars

These seminars are freely selected by students and may not be initially included in the master’s program schedule. Any seminar accessible to students within the fields of biochemistry, molecular biology, and biomedicine may be considered (e.g., seminar series organized by research institutes or other universities).

To ensure suitability, students must inform the module coordinator of their proposed seminar at least 15 days in advance so that it can be announced via the Virtual Campus.

The proposal must include:

• Title
• Name of the speaker and organizing institution
• Date, time, and location

The proposal must be sent by email to the module coordinator, who must explicitly approve each submission.

Each seminar may only be counted once (either as compulsory or optional).

Participation in this activity is voluntary. A maximum of 4 optional seminars will be considered in the final grade.

Tutorials

Tutorials will be offered upon student request. These may be individual sessions or held in small groups to address questions related to the seminars attended.

If deemed appropriate by the program coordination, meetings may also be arranged between interested students and invited speakers.

Participation in this activity is voluntary.

Use of Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools is permitted in this course as part of the development of assignments, provided that the final work reflects a significant personal contribution by the student in terms of analysis and critical reflection.

Students must clearly identify any parts generated using these technologies, specify the tools used, and include a critical reflection on how these tools influenced both the process and the final outcome. Lack of transparency in the use of AI will be considered a breach of academic integrity and may result in grading penalties or more severe sanctions in serious cases.

In accordance with current regulations, any irregularity in an assessment activity (academic fraud, plagiarism, or misuse of AI, unless explicitly authorized in this course guide) that may significantly affect the grade will result in a score of 0 for that assessment.

If the course guide establishes that achieving a minimum grade in a specific assessment is required to pass the course, or if multiple irregularities occur within the same course, the final grade for the course will be 0. Additionally, disciplinary proceedings may be initiated against any student involved in such irregularities.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment Activities

Activity 1. Compulsory seminars (35%)

Attendance, oral questions asked at the end of the seminars, and the summary (graphical) submitted via the Virtual Campus will be assessed.

Late submissions will be penalized.

Participation in this activity is mandatory in order to pass the module and to be eligible for the reassessment.

Activity 2. Optional seminars (15%)

Attendance and submission of the summary (textual or graphical) via the Virtual Campus will be assessed.

A maximum of 4 seminars will be considered.

The maximum grade (15%) will be obtained by participating in all 4 seminars.

This activity is optional and is not required either to pass the module or to be eligible for the reassessment.

Activity 3. Oral presentation (30%)

This consists of an oral presentation, in pairs, of one of the summaries previously submitted.

Participation is mandatory in order to pass the module and to be eligible for the reassessment.

Activity 4. Critical evaluation (20%)

Students will evaluate their peers’ presentations using rubrics. Each student will also receive evaluations from their peers.

Failure to submit 1, 2, or 3 rubrics without justified cause will result in a proportional reduction in the grade for Activities 3 and 4 (which together account for 50% of the module), equivalent to n/3.

Late submissions will incur a 50% penalty relative to the corresponding grade.

Clearly inconsistent evaluations (i.e., those that significantly deviate from the instructor’s assessment) may result in a proportional penalty in the activity grade.

Reassessment:

If the module is not passed, a reassessment assignment may be completed consisting of a written report on the compulsory seminars of the course.

This report must include a discussion of the seminar content and/or related bibliography.

Only students who have participated in Activities 1, 3, and 4—whose combined weight represents 67% of the total module grade—will be eligible for the reassessment.

General Considerations

• The module can only be passed if the student participates in Activities 1, 3, and 4.
• The minimum grade required to calculate the weighted average between Activities 1, 3, and 4 is 4 out of 10.
• No minimum grade is required for Activity 2.
• A “Not assessed” grade will be awarded if the student has not participated in Activities 1 or 3.

Academic Integrity

If plagiarism or any other irregularity is detected in submitted work, the student may fail the entire module, in accordance with current regulations.