Courses

BIO 202: Biodiversity Course Description:

Principles of Biology: Biodiversity (4)
Evolution, classification, and diversity of life, stressing morphology, physiology, principles of adaptation, and relationships between biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems. Laboratory exercises introduce major taxonomic groups and biotic principles. Three lecture and three laboratory hours each week. For course content click here.

BIO 313: Course Description:

Marine Phycology (4) Prerequisite: BIO 201 and 202. Introduction to the morphology, life histories, and ecology of benthic marine algae with emphasis on special topics such as morphogenesis, ecotypic variation and speciation,
phytogeography, or seasonal periodicity of growth and reproduction. Three lecture and three laboratory hours each week. For course content click here.

BIO 495: Parasitology Course Description:

Parasites obtain their nutrition from living hosts and negatively impact their hosts’ evolutionary fitness. In fact, parasites are the most successful of all eukaryotic consumer groups on our planet; however, most are poorly known to science. In this course the biology, systematics, life histories, genomics and cultural, economic, and historical importance of parasites will be explored. Emphasis will be placed on protozoan and metazoan parasites of biomedical
importance and their significance in the development of human civilization. For course content click here.

BIO 495: Origins of Eukaryotes Course Description:

Eukaryotes possess nuclei and chromosomes, complex endomembrane and cytoskeletal systems, and organelles such as mitochondria and plastids not found in prokaryotes. The evolution of eukaryotic cells from prokaryotic ancestors is unarguably one of the seminal evolutionary events in Earth’s biological history. This course explores current theories, genetic, and other kinds of data seeking to unravel the origins of eukaryotic cells approximately 2-1.5 billion years ago. For course content click here.

BIO 605: Molecular Evolution Course Description:

Evolution can be defined as a change in gene frequencies over time. In this fast-paced course we examine how genes arise, how genomes differ from one another, and model the evolutionary trajectories of genes in populations. Emphasis will be placed on mechanisms that change genomes and increase genetic diversity (e.g., polyploidy, crossing over, gene duplication) and how DNA and proteins change over time. Keywords: DNA, mutation, exon shuffling, repetitive DNA elements, mobile genetic elements, exon shuffling, horizontal gene transfer, proteins, protein domains, etc. For course content click here.