ENROLL

Annie L Bosacker

Prerequisite: Biology 125 and 126

Rika E Anderson

The advent of next-generation sequencing technology has revolutionized biology, enabling transformative breakthroughs in fields ranging from agriculture to conservation to medicine. In this course, students will gain experience with the computational and bioinformatics tools needed to analyze “big data,” including sequence searching and alignment, assembly, gene calling and annotation. Students will learn to ask and answer their own scientific questions using sequence data, and to critically assess the conclusions other genomics and bioinformatics studies. No prior computer programming experience is required. Associated laboratory will focus on wet lab methods for DNA/RNA extraction and preparation as well as computational analysis.

Prerequisite: Biology 125 and 126 and one of these upper level courses: Biology 240, Biology 321 or Biology 350; concurrent registration in Biology 339

Biology 339 required

John L Berini

The primary objective of this seminar is to gain a better understanding of “the plant-animal interface,” with a specific focus on the interactions between plants and vertebrate herbivores. Topics covered include 1) the range of influences that the abiotic environment has on plants as a source of energy and nutrition for vertebrates; 2) how animals respond to heterogeneity in the plant communities with a specific focus on plant chemistry (i.e., nutritional indices and defensive chemistry); and 3) how heterogeneity in plant chemistry influences animal demographics and overall biological diversity. 

Prerequisite: Biology 125, Biology 126 and a 200-level course in Biology

Waitlist only