It has been possible to study at the new faculty of the University of Bayreuth in Kulmbach since as early as the 2020 winter semester. Experimental training is an important element in the master's degree programme in "Food Quality & Safety" as well as in the bachelor's degree programme "Food & Health Sciences". Up to now, the associated practical laboratory courses have taken place at the Max Rubner Institute in Kulmbach or on the main campus in Bayreuth, but now this is possible on site. Faculty coordinator Dr Susanne Strebin explains how this day was prepared over the last few months: "For the laboratory equipment, the requirements were compiled in weekly planning meetings together with the future users and an engineering office, plans were drawn and, after a call for tenders, the desired equipment was ordered from the laboratory wholesaler and installed by the supplier within a few weeks.
Professor Clemens, founding dean of the faculty and course coordinator for "Food Quality & Safety" is very happy that the laboratories in the Fritz are now the first "own" teaching rooms in Kulmbach and is sure that the special atmosphere in the former industrial building will be appreciated by teachers and students alike. "In addition to modern technical equipment, our laboratories offer one of the most beautiful views over the town."
Harsha Sunny (from India) and Nawrin Jahan Shamshi (from Bangladesh) are studying "Food Quality & Safety" in their 2nd semester and are very happy that they can now gain practical experience on site: "The days in the lab are usually very long, but we enjoy every moment. Our supervisors are very helpful, and the lab equipment is very extensive and state-of-the-art. It's a big difference to the university in our home country."
This will be possible in Kulmbach from now on. Three large practical laboratories have been set up on the 2nd floor of the Fritz in compliance with the latest safety standards, with the aim of creating ideal study conditions. In future, all biological, chemical and analytical practical courses of Faculty Seven will take place there. On 21 March, the first laboratory practical course kicked off in the new rooms with "Crop Plant & Animal Biology".
In the basic practicals of the bachelor's programme, for example, molecular biology methods are taught: How to pipette the smallest amounts of solutions, how to isolate RNA, and what is "PCR" actually, e.g. in detecting enzymes in liver tissue? Or students learn how to isolate and detect proteins from different sources. Advanced students, for example, deal with blood lipids (cholesterol) in the practical course "Biochemistry and Physiology of Nutrition", conducting glucose tolerance tests to detect diabetes, and microscopy of healthy and diseased liver and fat tissue samples from test subjects after eating either normal or unhealthy high-fat diets.
