2025-2026 Academic Catalog

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Biology - Biotechnology Track, 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 36 BIOL credit hours 
  2. Students must complete a minimum of 18 credit hours in ancillary coursework. 
  3. Students must complete a minimum of 18 upper division (3000- level and above) BIOL credit hours.
  4. 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. All graded attempts in required and elective courses are calculated in the major GPA. Courses taken using P+/P/F or S/U grading cannot apply to major requirements.
  5. Students must complete a minimum of 18 upper division (3000-level and above) BIOL credit hours with CU Denver faculty and at least 6 credits must be at 4000-level or higher.

Program Restrictions, Allowances and Recommendations

  1. Upper division BIOL courses more than ten years old will not count automatically to the Major, but can be evaluated individually for their current relevance to the degree program through a petition process with the Department of Integrative Biology Curriculum Committee. Approval for courses older than ten years is not guaranteed so students may be required to update their knowledge by taking additional courses when past courses are outdated.   
  2. Undergraduate students may count up to six credit hours of independent study or internship (any combination of BIOL 3840 Independent StudyBIOL 3939 InternshipBIOL 4840 Independent Study, BIOL 4880 Directed Research) toward the upper-division Biology electives requirement in the major.
Complete the following required biology courses:20
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)
Introduction to Biotechnology
Introduction to Molecular Biology
General Cell Biology
Molecular Biology Laboratory
Choose at least one lab class from the following list:2-3
General Microbiology Lab
Biochemistry Lab
Complete the following required ancillary classes:8
General Chemistry I
Honors General Chemistry I
General Chemistry Laboratory I
Majors General Chemistry I Laboratory
Honors General Chemistry I Laboratory
General Chemistry II
Honors General Chemistry II Lecture
General Chemistry Laboratory II
Majors General Chemistry II Laboratory
Honors General Chemistry II Laboratory
Choose one biochemistry class from this list (Organic Chemistry I is a prereq):3-4
Biochemistry
General Biochemistry II
Choose one quantitative class from this list:3-4
Biostatistics
Calculus I
Applied Statistics
Fundamentals of Computational Innovation
Choose one writing intensive class from this list:3
Technical Writing (also satisfies CLAS Communicative Skills requirement)
Writing in the Sciences (also satisfies CLAS Communicative Skills requirement)
Argumentation and Logic (also satisfies CLAS Humanities requirement)
Proposal and Grant Writing (also satisfies CLAS Humanities requirement)
Rhetorics of Medicine & Health
Choose at least two upper division BIOL 4000 level classes from this list, must be from UCD faculty:6
Virology
Cell Biology of Disease
Human Genetics
Medical Microbiology
Genomics and Bioinformatics
Plant Structure and Development
Microbial Genomics
Applied Microbial Ecology
Mechanisms of Human Pathology
Biology of Cancer
Endocrinology
Structural Biology of Neurodegenerative Diseases
Biochemistry of Metabolic Disease
Biochemistry of Gene Regulation and Cancer
Choose at least two from the following list that have not already been used anywhere above (be sure to reach 36 credits in BIOL):
Internship, Directed Research, or Independent Study is highly recommended
Advanced Topics
Advanced Special Topics with Lab
Introduction to Evolution
General Cell Biology
Introduction to Immunology
General Microbiology
Developmental Biology
General Genetics
Independent Study
Internship
Advanced Biology Topics
Virology
Cell Biology of Disease
Human Genetics
Medical Microbiology
Genomics and Bioinformatics
Plant Structure and Development
Microbial Genomics
Applied Microbial Ecology
Mechanisms of Human Pathology
Biology of Cancer
Endocrinology
Structural Biology of Neurodegenerative Diseases
Biochemistry of Metabolic Disease
Biochemistry of Gene Regulation and Cancer
Independent Study
Directed Research
Instrumental Analysis
Instrumental Analysis Laboratory
Practical Applications of Spectroscopy
Nucleic Acid Technologies I
Bioconjugate Techniques and Theranostic Nanomedicine
Molecular Informatics
Programming for Data Analysis in the Physical Sciences
Molecular Modeling and Drug Design
Bioinorganic Chemistry: Bioinorganic compounds in medicine
Total Hours45-48

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