Development is the process by which organisms grow and acquire their final shape. This remarkably complex process requires exquisite spatiotemporal control, and principles of developmental biology have implications for nearly all other biological disciplines. This course is a deep dive into these general biological principles, using plants as a model system. Students will prepare presentations on primary literature and engage in vigorous discussions in a "journal club" format. Our goal is to learn how developmentally significant genes and cellular interactions control differentiation and pattern formation.

Development is the process by which organisms grow and acquire their final shape. This remarkably complex process requires exquisite spatiotemporal control, and principles of developmental biology have implications for nearly all other biological disciplines. This course is a deep dive into these general biological principles, using plants as a model system. Students will prepare presentations on primary literature and engage in vigorous discussions in a "journal club" format. Our goal is to learn how developmentally significant genes and cellular interactions control differentiation and pattern formation.

This course uses a biological foundation to explore general issues at the interface of biology and society. We will use both historical and contemporary reading materials, with an emphasis on the primary scientific literature, to inform discussions on often controversial issues in biology as well as the social responsibility of scientists to respond to these issues. The course will cover how science has shaped social and political opinions on such topics as race, ethnicity, and gender, as well as how society and politics are influenced by and impact science. This course will provide a background and context in which to consider, anticipate, and respond to biology's present and future ethical and social implications.

Working to remove the myths about fundamental and translational research, this course focuses on informing students beyond the public perception of biology and biological research. Striving to develop students' scientific communication skills, personal identity in science, and the intersection between research and community, we will engage students through collaboration with the Philadelphia community in addition to lecture and discussion based learning.

This course is designed for beginning graduate students and advanced undergraduates with a particular enthusiasm for cell biology. Biology 4010/5010 does not attempt to cover all aspects of cell biology, and is therefore not appropriate for students seeking a lecture course which provides a comprehensive survey of the field. Rather, the primary objective of this course is to teach those students considering a career in the biomedical sciences how to read, discuss, and question original research papers effectively. Intensive classroom discussions focus on the experimental methods used, results obtained, interpretation of these results in the context of cell structure and function, and implications for further studies.

This course is designed for students who are interested in understanding how physiological functions are achieved. Taking advantage of the recent explosion in genetic data and high-resolution protein structure analysis across organisms, the course focuses on the evolution of physiological functions at the genetic, structural, circuit and organismal levels. Examples include the co-evolution of toxins and toxin resistance between hunter and prey, the evolution of substance transport across cell membranes, intracellular signaling cascades, intercellular communication, distributed and centralized nervous systems, neural circuits controlling physiological functions such as feeding, locomotion and visual information processing. Students are expected to learn 1) basic physiological processes, their origin and adaptation, 2) modern genetic, structural and physiological techniques, 3) to critically evaluate research findings, 4) to present scientific papers, and 5) to write a research report.

Survey of the physical, chemical and biological properties of freshwater ecosystems, both riverine and lentic, natural and polluted.

This course focuses on the underlying principles, implementation, and interpretation of statistical methods commonly used in biology. Lectures will incorporate exercises that implement these analyses in the open source software R, as well as exercises in data visualization. We will draw on examples from ecology, evolution, genetics, and genomics.

The course will focus on muscle function from the level of molecules to whole animal locomotion. At each level of organization, muscle function will be explored from mechanical and energetic viewpoints. The course will include lectures, demonstrations, and several guest expert lectures. Students will also be introduced to realistic musculo-skeletal modelling and forward dynamic simulations to explore integrated function.

Animals display extraordinary diversity in their morphology, physiology, and behavior. Traditionally, these topics have been mostly studied from an ecological perspective. This course will focus on recent advances and discoveries that address the underlying biological mechanisms of animal diversity. Specific topics will include the genetic, molecular, and developmental basis of animal morphological diversity, and genetic, molecular, and neural basis of animal behavioral diversity. Students will gain an understanding of how animal diversity is encoded at the different levels of biological organization. The course will be comprised of lectures to introduce topics, discussion of primary literature, and in-class activities.