Computational biology is a growing field of study in the life sciences. This major, which is administered by the Department of Biological Sciences in the Dietrich School and the Department of Computer Science in the School of Computing and Information, trains students in the computer programming, laboratory techniques, and other skills they will need to succeed in graduate school and in the workforce. This major requires completion of 64 credits of coursework, detailed as follows.
Degree Requirements
Biological Sciences courses
All of the following courses are required for the major.
- BIOSC 0150 - FOUNDATIONS OF BIOLOGY 1 or
- BIOSC 0155 - HONORS FOUNDATIONS OF BIOLOGY 1
- BIOSC 0160 - FOUNDATIONS OF BIOLOGY 2 or
- BIOSC 0165 - HONORS FOUNDATIONS OF BIOLOGY 2
- BIOSC 0350 - GENETICS
- BIOSC 1000 - BIOCHEMISTRY
- *Students may alternately choose BIOSC 1810 MACROMOLECULAR STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION and BIOSC 1820 METABOLIC PATHWAYS AND REGULATION in lieu of BIOSC 1000 . In this case, BIOSC 1820 becomes the elective course.
Computer Science courses
All of the following courses are required for the major.
- CS 0011 - INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING FOR SCIENTISTS
- CS 0401 - INTERMEDIATE PROGRAMMING USING JAVA
- CS 0441 - DISCRETE STRUCTURES FOR CS
- CS 0445 - ALGORITHMS AND DATA STRUCTURES 1
- CS 1501 - ALGORITHMS AND DATA STRUCTURES 2
- CS 1656 - INTRODUCTION TO DATA SCIENCE
Computational Biology courses
All of the following courses are required for the major.
- BIOSC 1540 - COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
- BIOSC 1542 - COMPUTATIONAL GENOMICS or
- BIOSC 1544 - SIMULATION AND MODELING
- BIOSC 1630 - COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY SEMINAR
Capstone course
Students must choose one of the following capstone courses.
Co-requisite Chemistry courses
All of the following courses are required for the major.
- CHEM 0110 - GENERAL CHEMISTRY 1 or
- CHEM 0710 - UHC GENERAL CHEMISTRY 1
- CHEM 0120 - GENERAL CHEMISTRY 2 or
- CHEM 0720 - UHC GENERAL CHEMISTRY 2
- CHEM 0310 - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 1 or
- CHEM 0730 - UHC ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 1
For full major requirement details, visit the Computational Biology course catalog.