front page MSc Biotechnology
|
Wageningen University
Netherlands, Wageningen |
|
If you are not a citizen of Spain, please choose the right country at the top of the page.
|
Course overview
Biotechnology is defined as the industrial exploitation of living organisms or the exploitation of components derived from these organisms. Its practical applications include age-old techniques such as brewing and fermentation, which are still important today. In recent decades, gene modification has revolutionized the biotechnology industry, spawning countless new products and improving established processes. More and more types of fermentation are being used, and most new medicines are products of biotechnology. Modern biotechnology has become an applied area of science with a multidisciplinary approach embracing recombinant DNA technology, cellular biology, microbiology, biochemistry, as well as process design, engineering, modeling and control.
In Wageningen students can focus on six specialisations:
a. 2 specialisations related to disciplines:
• Cellular and Molecular biotechnology (focus on life sciences / biological sciences)
• Process technology(focus on design of technical steps in industrial processes)
b. 4 specialisations related to application
• Food biotechnology (focus on food applications)
• Medical biotechnology (focus on development and production of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics)
• Environmental biotechnology (focus on application of renewable resources, production of bio-energy and removal of waste and byproducts)
• Marine biotechnology (focus on application of marine organisms like algae and sponges in biotechnological processes)
c. At the Wetsus academy (at the town of Leeuwarden) you can do the specialisation
• Water Technology
Career opportunities
The first job after graduation, obtained by Msc biotechnologist, is often localised at a research institute or an university in- or outside the Netherland. It usually concerns a research project or, more detailed, a PhD project: more than 50 % of the graduated biotechnologist becomes PhD. Although most graduates choose for a career in science about 1/3 also starts in functions as engineer or technical expert.
After 5 years, about one third will still be employed as scientist at an university or research center. The others choose for a job in the biotechnological industry and work at companies like DSM, Intervet or Crucell. It is striking, that more than the half of the MSc biotechnology graduates, later in their career, will get a management function.