Biomedical Sciences

Biomedical sciences address the biological and molecular foundations of human health and disease, providing the scientific understanding on which clinical medicine, pharmacy, and healthcare diagnostics depend. Where clinicians focus on treating individual patients, biomedical scientists investigate the underlying mechanisms, seeking to understand how diseases arise, how the body responds to them, and what biological targets might be exploited to develop new treatments or diagnostics. It is a discipline that draws on anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, genetics, and pharmacology.

At Queen Mary University of London, this four-year full-time degree develops your understanding from the fundamental building blocks upwards. You will study anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry alongside molecular biology, immunology, genetics, and the cellular processes that govern human health. The four-year structure allows for greater depth and the development of specialist expertise in the later years of the programme.

You will engage with real research questions, developing laboratory skills, the capacity to design and interpret experiments, and the scientific literacy needed to engage with primary research literature. Queen Mary's location in east London and its connection to NHS hospitals and biomedical research institutes provide a rich context for learning about how laboratory science connects to clinical and therapeutic applications.

You will develop rigorous quantitative and experimental skills alongside a broad and integrated understanding of human biology and disease, capacities that are increasingly relevant as medicine becomes more data-driven and molecularly precise.

Graduates work in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, NHS clinical laboratories, medical research organisations, regulatory bodies, and public health agencies. Many pursue postgraduate study in specialist areas such as cancer biology, immunology, pharmacology, or clinical science, and the degree provides excellent preparation for doctoral research. Others move into science communication, healthcare management, or medical education.