Required and Gap-Filling Courses

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For a complete list of courses, times, and locations, please visit the 鶹ѰBoulder Course Catalog.

Below are courses currently required for all IQ Biology students to complete during their first year at CU.

Either Bioinformatics and Genomics or AI-Integrated Experimental Design will be required.

Bioinformatics and Genomics: Computational and experimental methods in bioinformatics and genomics, and how these methods provide insights into protein structure and function, molecular evolution, biological diversity, cell biology and human disease. Topics include database searching, multiple sequence alignment, molecular phylogeny, microarrays, proteomics and pharmacogenomics.

Quantitative Optical Imaging:Explores the fundamentals of optical imaging in biology. Covered topics include an introduction to optics and microscopes, fluorescence microscopy and image analysis. MATLAB will be taught throughout the course and used for image processing.

Prepares biological and biomedical students to integrate predictive models into their research. Covers the underlying technologies needed to understand how predictions are made, along with a framework for confronting the ethical questions they pose (including data sourcing, representation, and costs). Focuses on quantifying when and to what extent we can trust a model's output and how that trust defines its role in scientific discovery, without eroding rigor.

Training in handling issues such as conflicts of interest, mentor/mentee relationships, peer review, research misconduct and authorship and publication. Reviewing policies regarding human and animal subjects, safe laboratory practices. Instruction on conducting quality research including collaborative research, the scientist as a responsible member of society, ethical issues, rigor and reproducibility which will include effective design, execution, analysis, interpretation and communication.

Gap-Filling Courses

In your first year, you will also take up to two courses from already existing course offerings to balance yourbackground with your desired research activities. These “gap‐filling” courses give you anopportunity to broaden your capabilities and explore areas of quantitative biology that are newto you. Courses from any of our participating departments can be chosen, depending on yourbackground and future research interests. The selection of these courses will be approved orassigned by members of the Academic Advising Committee who will take into consideration the IQ Biology CoreCompetencies and Key Foundational Areas as well as your individual research interests. Undergraduate coursework may be taken for one of the two courses; however, the graduateschool will not allow undergraduate credits to apply toward the credits required for a Ph.D. bythe Graduate School.

To find courses you might like to take, please explore the course listings of our participatingdepartments.

Gap filling-classes students have taken in the past include:

  • APPM 2360 - Introduction to Differential Equations with Linear Algebra
  • APPM 3310 - Matrix Methods and Applications
  • APPM 3570 - Applied Probability
  • APPM 4520/5520 - Introduction to Mathematical Statistics
  • APPM 4390/5390 - Mathematical Biology
  • APPM 5560 - Markov Processes, Queues, and Monte Carlo Simulations
  • APPM 5570 - Statistical Methods
  • APPM 5600 - Numerical Analysis I
  • ASEN 5051 - Fluid Mechanics
  • CHEM 4611 - Survey of Biochemistry
  • CHEM 5341 - Chemical Biology and Drug Design
  • CSCI 2270 - Computer Science II: Data Structures
  • CSCI 3104 - Algorithms
  • CSCI 4314/5314 - Algorithms for Molecular Biology
  • CSCI 7000 - Current Topics in Computer Science: Information Visualization
  • CSCI 7000 - Current Topics in Computer Science: Computer Storage Systems
  • CSCI 7000 - Current Topics in Computer Science: Intro to Virtual Reality
  • CSCI 7000 - Current Topics in Computer Science: Scientific Visualization
  • CSCI 7000 - Current Topics in Computer Science: Data Science Team
  • EBIO 4120 - Advanced Ecology
  • EBIO 5460 - Special Topics: Evolutionary Ecology
  • EBIO 5800 - Critical Thinking in Biology - Microbial Ecology
  • IPHY 5800 - Advanced Statistics and Research Methods in Integrative Physiology
  • MCDB 3135 - Molecular Cell Biology I
  • MCDB 5230 - Gene Expression
  • MCDB4314/5314 - Algorithms for Molecular Biology