General description

Biomedicine studies functions of human body and analyze physiological processes both in health and diseases. At the interface of natural sciences, medicine and mathematics; biomedical research investigates biological processes leading to diseases on cellular and molecular level. The better knowledge of these mechanism is the base for further development of diagnostical and therapeutic methods ultimately leading to improvement of the healthcare. The analysis of large amounts of data generated in biomedical research requires application of several mathematical applications (programming, database analysis). Hence, biomedicine is a part of translational medicine, which combines methods from the natural sciences and clinical research.
The Minor Study Program in Biomedicine (30 ECTS) is suitable for students who have a keen interest in human biology and medicine, who wish to understand the structure and functions of the human body and are interested in how diseases develop and how they can be detected and treated at the molecular and cellular level.
The completion of the Minor Study Program in Biomedicine enables students to specialize in the field of health and medicine. The combination with the Major Study program in Biology is suitable for the teaching diploma for Matura schools with biology as the first subject. The Minor Study Program in Biomedicine is only offered at the bachelor's level and can only be chosen by students with the Major Study Program in Biology or Chemistry.

Admission requirements

The conditions for admission to the Bachelor’s degree programme are regulated in: „Verordnung über die Zulassung zum Studium an der Universität Zürich (VZS)".

Educational goals

Graduates from the minor study program (30 ECTS credits) in Biomedicine are able to

• apply their foundational knowledge of fundamental subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Anatomy and Physiology to address biomedical questions.
  
• recognize, describe and explain certain important biomedical concepts and phenomena.
  
• find, summarize and critically evaluate information using the primary and secondary literature.
  
• effectively communicate scientific hypotheses and results in written and oral form.
  

ECTS credits

30 ECTS Credits

Program structure

A Bachelor’s minor study program in Biomedicine (30 ECTS credits) provides an introduction to the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the human body. Students of biology have an additional introduction of biochemistry and students of chemistry have an additional introduction of cell biology.

Major/minor subject combinations

A minor study program in Biomedicine 30 can be combined with a major study program in Biology or a major study program in Chemistry.

Examination and assessment regulations

The student's achievement is assessed at the end of each module.
Achievements are graded on a scale from 1 to 6, whereby 6 denotes the highest grade of achievement and 1 the lowest. A grade below 4 is insufficient.
Achievements can also be graded with 'passed' or 'failed'.

Language of instruction

German, English