Degree Pathway for the Bachelor of Science in Biology - Biotechnology Option - 2023

For students who entered fall 2023 and beyond.

Freshman Year

Sophomore Year

Junior Year

Senior Year

¹The Arts and Humanities (AH) and Social Sciences (SS) perspectives are subsets of the Breadth of Knowledge (BOK) requirements in the Core Curriculum. No more than two Breadth of Knowledge courses can be taken with the same four-letter prefix.

The Core Curriculum also includes seven Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs). The Diversity and Cultural Awareness (DCA) and Social Responsibility and Ethics (SRE) are met outside the major requirements. See the DCA course listing and the SRE course listing for a full list of classes that fulfill these requirements.

The Class Search tool can be used to identify AH and SS courses that simultaneously satisfy the DCA or SRE requirement.

The Core Curriculum courses may be taken in any sequence. Refer to the Core Curriculum policy for further details. You should meet with your college-based professional advisor and/or faculty advisor to determine how best to satisfy the Core Curriculum requirements.

²Students are required to take one course from the “Organisms, Evolution, and Environment” (OEE) category and one from the “Cell and Tissue” (CT) category to ensure they have adequate Breadth of Knowledge at the sophomore level. Students should consult with their advisor regarding course selection to satisfy the OEE and CT elective requirements. BIOL.2200 Principles of Cellular Biology is recommended as the CT elective as it is a pre-requisite for many upper-level Biotechnology electives.

• Organisms, Evolution, and Environment Electives
  • BIOL.2400 Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation
  • BIOL.2055 Introduction to Bioinformatics
• Cell and Tissue Electives
  • BIOL.2200 Principles of Cellular Biology
  • BIOL.2520 Physiology

³Free Electives can be satisfied by any UML course xxxx.1010 or above, with the following exceptions:

• Courses with the MATH prefix must be above the level of Calculus I.
• Courses with the LIFE prefix may NOT be used.
• Additional Biology courses can be used, but NO MORE than 60 credits of BIOL coursework may be applied towards the minimum 120 credits requirement to graduate.

⁴Students must complete five (5) upper-level electives – two (2) of which must be lab courses. These courses are selected from two different categories:

• Biotechnology Electives: Four (4) of the five upper-level electives must be selected from an approved list of biotechnology courses. Two (2) of these biotechnology electives must be lab courses.
  • BIOL.3010 / BIOL.3030L Microbiology / Microbiology Laboratory
  • BIOL.4050L Bioinformatics
  • BIOL.4062 / BIOL.4062L Bioinformatics Tools and Sequence Analysis / Bioinformatics Tools and Sequence Analysis Lab
  • BIOL.4072 / BIOL.4072L Data Science for Biologist / Data Science for the Biologist Lab
  • BIOL.4200 Biochemistry II
  • BIOL.4225 Advanced Topics in Biochemistry
  • BIOL.4280 Molecular Biotechnology: Recombinant Protein Production
  • BIOL.4290 Recombinant Protein Production Techniques
  • BIOL.4300 Cancer Genomics
  • BIOL.4320 / BIOL.4340L Genomics / Genomics Laboratory
  • BIOL.4380 Advanced Genetic Analysis
  • BIOL.4385 Epigenetics and Chromatin
  • BIOL.4420 Advanced Cell Biology
  • BIOL.4480 Form Feeds Function in Vertebrate Evolution
  • BIOL.4490L / BIOL.5490L Biology of Muscle
  • BIOL.4600 Stem Cell Biology
  • BIOL.4620 / BIOL.4630L Cardiovascular Physiology / Cardiovascular Physiology Lab
  • BIOL.4670 Molecular Biology
  • BIOL.4690L Molecular Techniques
  • BIOL.4720 Virology
  • BIOL.4760 Cell Culture
  • BIOL.4800 / BIOL.4810L Developmental Biology / Developmental Biology Lab
  • BIOL.4820 Cancer Biology
  • BIOL.4840 Comparative Vertebrate Embryology
  • BIOL.4890 Practical Protein Crystallography
  • BIOL.4892 / BIOL.4894L Crystallography and Structural Bioinformatics / Crystallography and Structural Bioinformatics Lab
  • BIOL.4900 Human Neurobiology
  • BIOL.4930 / BIOL.4950L Immunology / Immunology Laboratory
  • BIOL.4940 Immunology II, Current Topics
• General Biology Elective: The remaining one (1) upper-level elective can be selected from all upper-level BIOL courses.

Note: Labs can be taken as a 3 credit lecture with a 1 credit lab or both combined into a 4 credit class. In addition, some lab courses have a 3 credit lecture with 2 credit lab for a total of 5 credits. Additionally, two labs can be replaced by taking the 4 credit senior research courses BIOL.4110L and BIOL.4120L

⁵Free Elective can vary from 0-2 credits depending on the number of 1 credit or 2 credit labs completed. For example:

• If a student completes no more than two 1 credit labs (whether the lab is a separate course or combined with the lecture into a 4 credit class), then Free Elective will be a 2 credit class. Since there are not many 2 credit classes, this could require completion of a full 3 credit class.
• However, if a student completes no more than 2 labs and each lab is a separate 2 credit lab, then the student will have earned two additional BIOL credits which can be used to satisfy Free Elective.

⁶Courses may be taken in either semester of the year listed.

Current UMass Lowell students should use their Advisement Report in SIS. If you need assistance, please contact your advisor.

Restriction on off-campus study:

Be advised that any course taken at another institution must be formally approved prior to enrollment. See the catalog policy for details.