Applied Lab Calculations for Life Sciences: Theory and VR

Period (from – till): 16 November 2026 – 20 November 2026 (BMS_P2_A).

Faculty
Dr. Lizette Utomo l.utomo@uu.nl, Faculty of veterinary medicine, regenerative orthopedics.
Dr. Koen Braat K.braat@umcutrecht.nl, Faculty of Medicine, Center for Mol Medicine and Regenerative Medicine Center.

Course description
Master students who will do an internship in a biomedical research lab most often have to make solutions and reagents for their experiments. In this course we will prepare you for these lab skills. We go back to the relevant basics of chemical calculations so you can easily apply this in real lab situations. We developed a Virtual Reality (VR) lab environment that will be used to practice making solutions. The course will be a combination of theory, practicing calculations in workgroups, and make the solutions with the calculated numbers in VR. After this course, you will be able to make the correct solutions which will benefit your research and will save chemicals. The course will be given in English.

Course outline and schedule
Day 1 – Monday (3 hours): lecture/workgroups combination (mandatory)

• Lecture: revising theory on e.g, molarity, moles, weight percentages, pH, stock solutions, dilutions, small quantities (growth factors, antibodies)
• Workgroup: relevant and related calculation exercises on above topics

 
Day 2 – Tuesday (3 hours): lecture/workgroup combination (mandatory)

• Lecture: Revising theory on e.g,: endothermic reactions, chemical labels, chemical waste disposal. Introduction to calculations for cell culture work.
• Workgroup: relevant and related calculation exercises on above topics.

 
Day 3 – Wednesday (1.5hrs): VR session group 1 (20 students)
Day 3 – Wednesday (1.5hrs): VR session group 2 (Note: this session will only commence if more than 20 students participate in the course)
 
Day 4 - Friday: written exam

You can register for this course via Osiris Student. More information about the registration procedure can be found here on the Students' site.
The maximum number of participants is 40, with a minimum of 20.

Prerequisite knowledge
BSc Life Sciences

Mandatory for students in own Master’s programme:
N.A.
 
Optional for students in other GSLS Master’s programme:
Yes, recommended for: RMT, CSDB, CVHD (BoD), I&I, MCLS, BII en Biofabrication.
Also open for other master programmes.
Optional: for GSLS PhD candidates if spots are available.