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COURSES

"Our real teacher has been and still is the embryo, who is, incidentally, the only teacher who is always right."

Viktor Hamburger

BIO336 Developmental Biology

In Developmental Biology (Bio336), students learn how egg cells become organisms - how cells make decisions to become different tissue types, and how those tissues interact with one another to make organs in concert through the whole developing embryo. In the lecture portion of the course, students gain a broad basis for understanding development and many of the elegant experiments that reveal how multicellular life organizes itself. In the laboratory portion, students interact with embryos while they develop, design experiments, and learn how researchers determine how molecular cues instruct these cell-fate decisions.

BIO450 Histology

Histology is the study of tissues, which classically has been accomplished on thin sections. In this capstone course, students learn about these classic histological techniques and have opportunities to do sectioning themselves. They see how modern histological approaches make it possible to understand diseases with incredible precision. They also learn how modern genetics informs our understanding of tissue structure in healthy and diseased individuals. They interact with scientific literature, through careful reading, critical thinking, and produce in-depth presentations on current research. Each student will also have opportunities to teach their peers about what they learn while exploring cutting edge research about the tissues that comprise our bodies: how they function, are affected in disease, and how those diseases can be treated.

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