Biological Sciences Major
Students must also complete the Undergraduate Registration Requirement and the degree requirements of their home school.
NOTE: This Catalog describes Weinberg College BA requirements that pertain to students who matriculated at Northwestern after spring quarter 2023. Refer to the Archives if you are following BA requirements described in the 2018-2019 through 2022-2023 editions.
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| Program Courses (10.02 units) | |
| 7 core courses (5.02 units): | |
| BIOL_SCI 201-0 | Molecular Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 202-0 | Cell Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 203-0 | Genetics and Evolution |
| BIOL_SCI 232-0 | Molecular and Cellular Processes Laboratory |
| BIOL_SCI 233-0 | Genetics and Molecular Processes Laboratory |
| BIOL_SCI 234-0 | Investigative Laboratory |
| BIOL_SCI 301-0 | Principles of Biochemistry |
| 2 300-level BIOL SCI Electives 1 | |
| 3 courses from one of the concentration areas: | |
| Related Courses 3 | |
| CHEM 110-0 & CHEM 131-0 & CHEM 132-0 | Quantitative Problem Solving in Chemistry and Fundamentals of Chemistry I and Fundamentals of Chemistry II |
| or CHEM 151-0 & CHEM 152-0 | General Chemistry I and General Chemistry II |
| or CHEM 171-0 & CHEM 172-0 | Advanced General Inorganic Chemistry and Advanced General Physical Chemistry |
| CHEM 215-1 & CHEM 215-2 | Organic Chemistry I and Organic Chemistry II |
| or CHEM 217-1 & CHEM 217-2 | Accelerated Organic Chemistry I and Accelerated Organic Chemistry II |
| MATH 218-3 | Single-Variable Calculus with Precalculus |
| or MATH 220-2 | Single-Variable Integral Calculus |
| 1 statistics course - BIOL_SCI 337-0 or STAT 202-0 or other approved course 4 | |
| PHYSICS 130-1 & PHYSICS 130-2 | College Physics and College Physics |
| or PHYSICS 135-1 & PHYSICS 135-2 | General Physics and General Physics |
| or PHYSICS 140-1 & PHYSICS 140-2 | Fundamentals of Physics and Fundamentals of Physics |
- 1
BIOL_SCI 398-0 Tutorial in Biology and BIOL_SCI 399-0 Independent Research do not count as 300-level BIOL SCI Electives. Students doing the Computational and Systems Biology concentration and taking a 1.0 unit course to satisfy the coding requirement may use this in place of one of the required 300-level electives.
- 2
This concentration also has a programming competency requirement.
- 3
Number of related course units depend on chemistry and mathematics sequences taken. Laboratory components of general and organic chemistry courses and physics courses require separate registration and bear separate credit. See chemistry and physics pages of this Catalog for more information.
- 4
BIOL_SCI 337-0 Biostatistics may fulfill both a concentration or elective requirement and the related course requirement in statistics.
Concentration Courses
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| Any three of the following courses: | |
| BIOL_SCI 332-0 | Conservation Genetics |
| BIOL_SCI 341-0 | Population Genetics |
| BIOL_SCI 353-0 | Molecular Biology Laboratory |
| BIOL_SCI 354-0 | Quantitative Analysis of Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 359-0 | Quantitative Experimentation in Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 378-0 | Functional Genomics |
| BIOL_SCI 390-0 | Molecular Biology of Genome Editing and Engineering |
| BIOL_SCI 391-0 | Developmental Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 392-0 | Developmental Genetics Laboratory |
| BIOL_SCI 393-0 | Human Genomics |
| BIOL_SCI 395-0 | Molecular Genetics |
| BIOL_SCI 396-0 | Evolution and Diversity: Mushroom Genetics and Genomics |
Cell and Developmental Biology
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| Any three of the following courses: | |
| BIOL_SCI 310-0 | Human Physiology |
| BIOL_SCI 315-0 | Advanced Cell Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 319-0 | Biology of Animal Viruses |
| BIOL_SCI 327-0 | Biology of Aging |
| BIOL_SCI 328-0 | Microbiology |
| BIOL_SCI 353-0 | Molecular Biology Laboratory |
| BIOL_SCI 355-0 | Immunobiology |
| BIOL_SCI 360-0 | Principles of Cell Signaling |
| BIOL_SCI 377-0 | The Human Microbiome |
| BIOL_SCI 380-0 | Biology of Cancer |
| BIOL_SCI 381-0 | Stem Cells and Regeneration |
| BIOL_SCI 390-0 | Molecular Biology of Genome Editing and Engineering |
| BIOL_SCI 391-0 | Developmental Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 392-0 | Developmental Genetics Laboratory |
Human Health and Disease
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| Any three of the following courses: | |
| BIOL_SCI 302-0 | Fundamentals of Neurobiology |
| BIOL_SCI 310-0 | Human Physiology |
| BIOL_SCI 319-0 | Biology of Animal Viruses |
| BIOL_SCI 325-0 | Animal Physiology |
| BIOL_SCI 327-0 | Biology of Aging |
| BIOL_SCI 328-0 | Microbiology |
| BIOL_SCI 344-0 | Anatomy of Vertebrates |
| BIOL_SCI 353-0 | Molecular Biology Laboratory |
| BIOL_SCI 355-0 | Immunobiology |
| BIOL_SCI 358-0 | Advanced Physiology Laboratory |
| BIOL_SCI 360-0 | Principles of Cell Signaling |
| BIOL_SCI 377-0 | The Human Microbiome |
| BIOL_SCI 380-0 | Biology of Cancer |
| BIOL_SCI 381-0 | Stem Cells and Regeneration |
| BIOL_SCI 391-0 | Developmental Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 392-0 | Developmental Genetics Laboratory |
Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| Any three of the following courses: | |
| BIOL_SCI 332-0 | Conservation Genetics |
| BIOL_SCI 333-0 | Plant-Animal Interactions |
| BIOL_SCI 334-0 | Soils and the Environment: The Earth's Critical Zone |
| BIOL_SCI 336-0 | Spring Flora |
| BIOL_SCI 337-0 | Biostatistics |
| BIOL_SCI 339-0 | Critical Topics in Ecology and Conservation |
| BIOL_SCI 341-0 | Population Genetics |
| BIOL_SCI 342-0 | Evolutionary Processes |
| BIOL_SCI 344-0 | Anatomy of Vertebrates |
| BIOL_SCI 346-0 | Field Ecology |
| BIOL_SCI 347-0 | Conservation Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 349-0 | Community Ecology |
| BIOL_SCI 350-0 | Plant Evolution and Diversity Lab |
Biochemistry and Biophysics
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| Any three of the following courses: | |
| BIOL_SCI 323-0 | Bioinformatics: Sequence and Structure Analysis |
| BIOL_SCI 338-0 | Modeling Biological Dynamics |
| BIOL_SCI 353-0 | Molecular Biology Laboratory |
| BIOL_SCI 360-0 | Principles of Cell Signaling |
| BIOL_SCI 361-0 | Protein Structure and Function |
| BIOL_SCI 363-0 | Biophysics |
Computational and Systems Biology
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| Coding requirement for this concentration may be satisfied by COMP_SCI 110-0, COMP_SCI 111-0, or NICO 101-0 plus NICO 102-0. One unit of programming coursework may substitute for one of the two required 300-level Biol Sci electives. | |
| Any three of the following courses: | |
| BIOL_SCI 323-0 | Bioinformatics: Sequence and Structure Analysis |
| BIOL_SCI 337-0 | Biostatistics |
| BIOL_SCI 338-0 | Modeling Biological Dynamics |
| BIOL_SCI 354-0 | Quantitative Analysis of Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 359-0 | Quantitative Experimentation in Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 378-0 | Functional Genomics |
| CHEM_ENG 379-0 | Computational Biology: Analysis and Design of Living Systems |
| Selected sections of BIOL_SCI 345-0 and ES_APPM 495-0 are also eligible to be applied to this concentration. 5 | |
- 5
For example BIOL_SCI 345-0 may be applied towards the Computational and Systems Biology concentration when the topic is, "Principles & Methods in Systems Biology;" ES_APPM 495-0 may be applied when the topic is, "Introduction to the Analysis of RNA Sequencing Data."
Molecular Neurobiology
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| Any three of the following courses: | |
| BIOL_SCI 302-0 | Fundamentals of Neurobiology |
| BIOL_SCI 303-0 | Molecular Neurobiology |
| BIOL_SCI 305-0 | Neurobiology Laboratory |
| BIOL_SCI 307-0 | Brain Structure, Function, and Evolution |
| BIOL_SCI 325-0 | Animal Physiology |
| BIOL_SCI 360-0 | Principles of Cell Signaling |
| BIOL_SCI 391-0 | Developmental Biology |
| BIOL_SCI 392-0 | Developmental Genetics Laboratory |
Interdisciplinary Biology
Customized concentration consisting of a thematic set of three, 300-level Biol Sci courses approved by the biology program. Interdisciplinary themes should be unique and distinct from already established concentrations.
Honors in Biological Sciences
Seniors may be recommended to the college for graduation with honors if they have completed BIOL_SCI 397-0 Senior Thesis Colloquium and at least one quarter of BIOL_SCI 398-0 Tutorial in Biology or BIOL_SCI 399-0 Independent Research, have written an approved honors thesis based on their independent study, and have sufficiently high grades.
Majors with strong academic records and an interest in pursuing honors must complete BIOL_SCI 397-0 Senior Thesis Colloquium in Winter Quarter of Senior Year.
For more information consult the biological sciences website and see the Honors in the Major.