Wintersemester

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After successful finalization of the module, our students have acquired initial theoretical and practical skills to tackle a scientific question predefined by a supervisor and conduct research tasks under guidance by this supervisor. They
have gained first hands-on experience in the design of experiments in life science laboratories, or the development of study protocols in clinical study units. They are experienced in sensible and reproducible application of selected methods, understand the technical background and limitations of the applied technologies. They gained insights into quality control procedures in scientific research. They have learned to document the day-by-day progress of their work in a comprehensible manner that allows independent recapitulation of the applied methods, the acquired data and the results obtained. In a structured written report, accompanied by a day-by-day protocol, they can (1) explain the scientific context and define the goal of their research project, (2) describe the application of methods in comprehensive technical notes, (3) document and analyze the acquired data, (4) judge upon the reliability and
reproducibility of the results, and (5) evaluate and interpret these results in relation to published work. They are trained to explain the goals, experimental design and essential outcome of their research internship to their peers and supervisor in short and concise oral presentations.

The scientific questions addressed by laboratories on the TUM campus or at external research facilities hosting the master students for the research internship deal with nutrition-related research, either on the fundamental or applied level, in the fields of biochemistry, molecular biology, nutrition physiology, metabolism, microbiology, food chemistry, nutrition medicine, genetics, clinical studies, epidemiology and public health. The internship is an opportunity for our students to apply their theoretical and practical knowledge acquired during the first two semesters to a specific research question in the framework of a project in the host laboratory.

Module Research Methods
Module Basics in Computational Biology
Module Integrated Lab Course

The internship is composed of three elements with theoretical and practical aspects: Phase 1-Developing and planning of a scientific project, Phase 2- Implementation of a research plan devised in Phase 1, and Phase 3– writing a scientific report about the research project. In the practical course, students are trained to scrutinize a esearch question related to nutrition science and biomedicine as predefined by the supervisor. The research internship embeds in a defined research context at the respective chair/laboratory/department hosting the student. High intensity supervision of students by experienced scientific personnel supports the training success. Students document their research work in a dedicated lab notebook, with a focus on detailed description of applied methodologies, data acquisition and data analyses. They report to their supervisor on the progress of their work in regular meetings and summarize the goals of their research project and the main findings in short oral presentations, using PowerPoint, or equivalent presentation tools. Within this setting, the project progress and plans to further develop the project are discussed.

The student’s performance is evaluated, as documented in the lab notebook and the internship report (max. 12
pages), by the following criteria:
- understanding of the research question
- overview of the published scientific literature related to the research question
- ability to learn and apply new methods
- skillfulness in research tasks
- precision and accuracy in data acquisition and data management
- data analyses and evaluation
- ability to study and work autonomously
- clarity of scientific writing

Review articles and original research articles related to the topic of the research internship. The supervisor assists the student to find the relevant papers and recommends specialized textbooks.