Course Requirements
The Microbial Sciences secondary totals five courses (20 credits) in three categories. To fulfill the Microbial Sciences secondary concentration requirements, students must take:
Two cornerstone courses
One introductory course
Two additional microbe-related courses at the 100-level or above.
See below for the courses that satisfy each of these requirements
Courses
The following two courses are required:
- LS1a (or LPSA) and LS1b, LS50, or LS100r
- OEB290/MICROBI210 - Microbial Sciences: Chemistry, Ecology, and Evolution
Potential courses include, but are not limited to:
Earth and Planetary Sciences
- E-PSCI 10 – A Brief History of the Earth
- E-PSCI 53 – Marine Geochemistry
- E-PSCI 187 – Biogeochemistry
Chemistry
- CHEM 27 – The Organic Chemistry of Life
Molecular and Cellular Biology
- MCB 60 – Cellular Biology and Molecular Medicine
- MCB 68 – Cell Biology Through the Microscope
- MCB 112 – Biological Sequence Analysis
- MCB 121 – The Microbes
- MCB 182 – Bacterial Diversity and the Human Microbiome
Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
- OEB 10 – Foundations of Biological Diversity
- OEB 50 – Genetics and Genomics
- OEB 55 – Ecology: Populations, Communities, and Ecosystems
- OEB 119 – Deep Sea Biology
Please note that courses at the 200 level or above are intended primarily for graduate students but are often open to undergraduates with the necessary background/prerequisites. For courses above the 200 level, interested students should inquire in advance with the course director/faculty.
Potential courses include, but are not limited to:
Biological Sciences in Public Health
- Some courses in BPH may be relevant, but these may only be taken by undergraduates with explicit instructor permission
Chemistry
- CHEM 171 – Biological Synthesis
Earth and Planetary Sciences
- E-PSCI 10 – A Brief History of the Earth
- E-PSCI 53 – Marine Geochemistry
- E-PSCI 187 – Biogeochemistry
- E-PSCI 239 – The Climate Energy Challenge
- E-PSCI 286 – Oxygen (and oxidant) Budgets Through Earth Time
- E-PSCI 287 – Biogeochemistry
Engineering Sciences
- ENG-SCI 24 – Flavor Molecules of Food Fermentation
- ENG-SCI 195 – Using First Principles to Reverse-engineer Complex Biological Systems
- ENG-SCI 222 – Advanced Cellular Engineering
Immunology
- IMMUN 202 – Immune and Inflammatory Diseases
- IMMUN 304 – Innate Immunity and Host-Pathogen Interactions
- IMMUN 204 – Critical Readings for Immunology
Immunology and Infectious Disease
- 209 – Microbial Communities and the Human Microbiome
M.I.T. courses
- MIT 7.21 – Microbial Physiology
- MIT 7.26 – Molecular Basis of Infectious Disease
- MIT 1.89 – Environmental Microbial Biogeochemistry
- MIT 12.007 – Geobiology: History of Life on Earth
- MIT 12.177 – Astrobiology, Origins and Early Evolution of Life
Microbiology (Harvard Medical School)
- MICRO 201 – Molecular Biology of the Bacterial Cell
- MICRO 202 – Mechanisms of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Host Immune Response
- MICRO 213 – Social Issues in Biology
- MICRO 305 – Molecular Determinants of Intracellular Bacterial Pathogenesis
- MICRO 308 – Bacterial/ Host Interactions in Symbiosis and Pathogenesis
- MICRO 316 – Host Pathogen Interactions
Molecular and Cellular Biology
- MCB 111 – Mathematics in Biology
- MCB 149 – The History of Molecular Biology
- MCB 188 – Chromosomes
Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
- OEB 119 - Deep Sea Biology
- OEB 125 - Molecular Ecology and Evolution
- OEB 242- Population Genetics
- OEB 277 - Topics in Symbiosis
Systems Biology
- SYSBIO 220- Analytical foundations for quantitative biologists
Virology
- VIR 200 - Introduction to Virology
- VIR 201 – Virology