Biological Sciences

This course provides perspective about how a number of both common and rare diseases arise, and explores the associated changes that are seen at the cellular and tissue level. The course uses a number of specific examples of diseases that arise from single point mutations (for example skeletal deformities such as Smith-McCort dysplasia), as well as complex disease that arise from wider sets of gene alterations (for example various cancer types). Lectures are complemented by a series of laboratory classes that expose students to key aspects of how molecular cell biology approaches are used to understand and combat various diseases. Students gain experience with advanced disease models, three-dimensional spheroids, and their characterization by microscopy, as well as how they can be used to assess the efficacy of bioactive compounds. In addition, the laboratory classes teach students how molecular biology methods can be used to diagnose a disease and guide treatment. 

The cell is the basic building block of eukaryotic organisms, and understanding how cells develop and their physiological responses to the environment are key to our understanding of plant growth and development. This course expands on basic cell biology by using the stomatal guard cell as the system to understand plant cell biology. Lectures explore the genetic and molecular regulation of stomatal development and how stomatal guard cells respond to internal and external signals through changes in ion transport to effect changes in stomatal guard cell turgor. Practical components of this course include demonstrations of (i) advanced microscopy techniques (including laser scanning confocal microscopy), (ii) biolistic transformation, and (iii) techniques to assay for stomatal function and stomatal development.

This course looks at the physiology of animals with a focus on human physiology. It involves lectures, lab work, and section work. The first part of the course is focused on the regulation of homeostasis in animals. It then studies the organization and function of the nervous system and the digestive system, with a close look at the contractile motion of the digestive tract, the secretions of the liver and pancreas, and the interplay with the nervous system. It finishes with an examination of thermoregulation and how metabolism plays a role in maintaining a stable body temperature.

This course examines dynamics and control of prokaryotic cellular processes in response to the biotic and abiotic environment including metabolic interactions and metabolic cooperation between microorganisms.

In this course, students review the major groups of invertebrates which, apart from arthropods, account for most of the animal species on the planet. The course provides the tools for describing and understanding biodiversity and many of the species discussed play key ecological and economic roles. Students review classification of invertebrates into major groups and examine some of the extraordinary solutions they have developed to movement, feeding, sensing, and reproduction. Practical sessions illustrate the variety of invertebrate life and include a field trip to search for specimens on the shore. Key skills include scientific drawing and dissection and, above all, the skill of species identification, including classification, use of keys and guidebooks and taxonomic conventions. 

This course is an introduction to the principles and mechanisms of epigenetics, exploring how heritable changes in gene expression occur without changes to the underlying DNA sequence. Topics include DNA methylation, histone modifications, chromatin remodeling, and non-coding RNAs. The course will also cover the role of epigenetics in development, disease, and evolution. 

This course examines the diverse and often elegant ways that the bounty of algae, fungi, and bryophytes grow and reproduce right here on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. 

This is a special studies course involving an internship with a corporate, public, governmental, or private organization, arranged with the Study Center Director or Liaison Officer. Specific internships vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. A substantial paper or series of reports is required. Units vary depending on the contact hours and method of assessment. The internship may be taken during one or more terms but the units cannot exceed a total of 12.0 for the year.