Overview
Molecular and cellular pathology involves the study of disease processes at the molecular level and allows diagnosis of disease through the detection of genetic mutations, dysregulated gene expression and non functional or cytotoxic proteins. In this unit, you will learn about the role of cellular genetic material and associated genetic rearrangements and mutations. You will explore the application of molecular techniques, such as polymerase chain reaction and next generation sequencing, and their revolutionary impact on diagnostic testing. The residential school may be scheduled outside of the term of offering of the unit.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Prerequisites:Enrolment in Master of Laboratory Medicine.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Self-reflection
Residential school experiments
Consider incorporating additional experiments during the residential school, as there is capacity to include more practical work.
Feedback from SUTE and self-reflection
Tutorial format has been engaging
Retain the current tutorial format, with questions provided one week in advance and reviewed during face-to-face tutorial sessions.
Feedback from Self-reflection
The topic Molecular Basis of Prostate, Colorectal, and Breast Cancer requires an additional lecture/tutorial session, as the existing allocation is insufficient to adequately cover the breadth and depth of the content.
Consider adding an additional lecture/tutorial session to adequately cover this topic. This could be achieved by replacing the existing blood lecture topic with this content (as the blood related topic is also covered in LMED28002)
- Critically discuss how gene mutations or rearrangements underpin the molecular aetiology of particular diseases
- Evaluate the role of epigenetic modifications of the genome in disease pathogenesis
- Explain the process of identifying genetic modifications and their clinical significance
- Demonstrate skills in the use of genetic techniques in molecular pathology, including genetic amplification
- Explain the use of molecular pathology in disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment, including the development of personalised medicines.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 20% | |||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | |||||
| 3 - Laboratory/Practical - 0% | |||||
| 4 - Examination - 50% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | |||||
| 2 - Communication | |||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | |||||
| 4 - Research | |||||
| 5 - Self-management | |||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | |||||
| 7 - Leadership | |||||
| 8 - First Nations Knowledges | |||||
| 9 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||