2025-2026 Academic Catalog

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Biochemistry, BS

General Requirements

To earn a degree, students must satisfy all requirements in each of the three areas below, in addition to their individual major requirements.

Program Requirements

  1. Students must complete a minimum of 74 credit hours, including a minimum of 33 CHEM credit hours.
  2. Students must complete a minimum of 16 upper-division (3000-level and above) CHEM credit hours.
  3. Students must earn a minimum grade of C- (1.7) in all courses that apply to the major and must achieve a minimum cumulative major GPA of 2.0. Courses taken using P+/P/F or S/U grading cannot apply to major requirements.
  4. Students must complete a minimum of 14 credits hours with CU Denver faculty including CHEM 4518 Physical Chemistry Laboratory: Reaction Analysis or CHEM 4538 Physical Chemistry Laboratory: Molecular Structure or CHEM 4548 Physical Biochemistry Laboratory.

Program Restrictions, Allowances and Recommendations

  1. A student who has declared a Biochemistry major at CU Denver may not take additional chemistry courses outside of the department for the purpose of applying those credits toward meeting the requirements of the major without prior written approval of the undergraduate Biochemistry advisor. No more than 3 additional hours of such pre-approved transfer credits will be allowed.
  2. All courses applied to the Biochemistry major need to be taken within ten years of the graduation date with the exception General Chemistry I and II Lecture and Lab: CHEM 2031 General Chemistry I, CHEM 2032 Majors General Chemistry I, CHEM 2038 General Chemistry Laboratory ICHEM 2039 Majors General Chemistry I LaboratoryCHEM 2061 General Chemistry II, CHEM 2062 Majors General Chemistry II, CHEM 2091 Honors General Chemistry II LectureCHEM 2068 General Chemistry Laboratory II, and CHEM 2069 Majors General Chemistry II Laboratory. In the event that the student would like to apply for expired credit for CHEM 3481 Majors Organic Chemistry I, the student will need to test at the 50th percentile on the ACS Standardized Exam for Organic Chemistry I.  
  3. PHYS 2321 Intro Experimental Phys Lab I and PHYS 2341 Intro Experimental Phys Lab II are specifically designed for students in non-Physics majors and can be paired with either PHYS 2010 College Physics I and PHYS 2020 College Physics II or PHYS 2311 General Physics I: Calculus-Based and PHYS 2331 General Physics II: Calculus-Based lectures. Students pursuing a second major in Physics should complete PHYS 2311 General Physics I: Calculus-Based and PHYS 2331 General Physics II: Calculus-Based and PHYS 2351 Applied Physics Lab I and PHYS 2361 Applied Physics Lab II.
  4. Students may double major in Biochemistry and Chemistry. Students can apply the requirements for both majors, if the respective courses are a major requirement for both the Chemistry and Biochemistry major. A course cannot fulfill more than two requirement/elective areas in a student’s degree.
Complete all of the following required CHEM courses:33
General Chemistry I
Majors General Chemistry I
Majors General Chemistry I Laboratory
General Chemistry Laboratory I
General Chemistry II
Majors General Chemistry II
Majors General Chemistry II Laboratory
General Chemistry Laboratory II
Majors Organic Chemistry I
Majors Organic Chemistry Laboratory I
Majors Organic Chemistry II
Majors Organic Chemistry Laboratory II
Foundations of Physical Chemistry 1
Physical Chemistry: Quantum and Spectroscopy
Physical Chemistry: Thermodynamics and Kinetics
Physical Biochemistry Laboratory
Physical Chemistry Laboratory: Molecular Structure
Physical Chemistry Laboratory: Reaction Analysis
General Biochemistry I
Graduate Biochemistry I
Biochemistry Lab
Complete nine credits from three of the following advanced biochemistry courses:9
Molecular Biology Laboratory
Genomics and Bioinformatics
Nucleic Acid Technologies I
Bioconjugate Techniques and Theranostic Nanomedicine
Advanced Topics in Chemistry 3
Artificial Intelligence in Chemistry and Biochemistry
and Programming for Data Analysis in the Physical Sciences 4
Structural Biology of Neurodegenerative Diseases
General Biochemistry II
Biochemistry of Metabolic Disease
Biochemistry of Gene Regulation and Cancer
Molecular Modeling and Drug Design
Bioinorganic Chemistry: Bioinorganic compounds in medicine
Directed Research 2
Graduate Biochemistry II
Complete six credits from the following molecular science elective courses, not already completed:6
Introduction to Molecular Biology
Human Physiology
Human Physiology Lab
General Cell Biology
General Microbiology
General Microbiology Lab
BIOL 3763
Developmental Biology
General Genetics
Cell Biology of Disease
Neurobiology
Instrumental Analysis
Cannabis Chemistry
Physical Chemistry: Thermodynamics and Kinetics
Physical Chemistry: Quantum and Spectroscopy
Molecular Informatics
Environmental Chemistry
Directed Research
Biophysics of the Cell NM
Neural Basis of Learning
Complete ancillary coursework.26
Biology
Mathematics
Physics
Total Hours74
1

Students who choose Physics Sequence A can substitute MATH 2421 Calculus III or MATH 3511 Mathematics of Chemistry in place of CHEM 4500 Foundations of Physical Chemistry.

2

For faculty-mentored research projects related to biochemistry. Major credit for this course requires prior approval from the Biochemistry majors advisor and the research mentor. Major credits do not count toward departmental Honors requirements.

3

Certain topics, with permission from the Biochemistry Advisor.

4

These two together fulfill one Advanced Biochemistry Elective requirement, if taken alone, CHEM 4630 will not count towards the elective credits.

Biology

Complete the following:8
Organisms to Ecosystems (Gen Bio)
Honors Organisms to Ecosystems (Gen Bio)
Organisms to Ecosystems Lab (Gen Bio)
Honors Organisms to Ecosystems Lab (Gen Bio)
Molecules to Cells (Gen Bio)
Honors Molecules to Cells (Gen Bio)
Molecules to Cells Lab (Gen Bio)
Honors Molecules to Cells Lab (Gen Bio)

Mathematics 

Complete the following:8
Calculus I
Calculus II

Physics

Complete one of the following sequences. Refer to note 3 under Program Restrictions, Allowances and Recommendations for alternative Physics lab information: 10
Sequence A 1
General Physics I: Calculus-Based
Intro Experimental Phys Lab I
General Physics II: Calculus-Based
Intro Experimental Phys Lab II
Sequence B
College Physics I
Intro Experimental Phys Lab I
College Physics II
Intro Experimental Phys Lab II
1

Students who choose Physics Sequence A can substitute MATH 2421 Calculus III or MATH 3511 Mathematics of Chemistry in place of CHEM 4500 Foundations of Physical Chemistry.

To learn more about the Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website. 

To review the Degree Map for this program, please visit our website.