Independent research project under the direction of a faculty sponsor for seniors in genetics and in the Honors Program. Final product is a written thesis. One or two semesters.

Development of programming skills that enable life science students to ask fundamental biological questions that require computers to automate repetitive tasks and handle query results efficiently. Topics include: computer values of important parameters of biological sequence data; pattern search and motif discovery scripts; accessing, querying, manipulating, retrieving, parsing, analyzing, and saving data from local and remote databases. One semester of bioinformatics and one semester of genetics recommended. Computer Lab.

Hands-on approach to exploration of evolutionary forces affecting the frequency and distribution of genetic variation in natural populations. Wet lab techniques include DNA extraction, restriction enzyme digestion, PCR, DNA fragment size-selection. Computational skills include high-throughput sequencing data control, identifying allelic variants, and generation of population genetic summary statistics. One semester of genetics and one semester of statistics recommended.

Structure, organization, replication, dynamics, and expression of genetic information in eukaryotes. Focus on molecular genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of gene expression and its control; molecular genetic control of cell division and differentiation during development. One semester of genetics recommended.