Biological Sciences (BIOS)

Description: Principles of cancer genetics, cancer prevention, and new methods for diagnosis and therapy. Fundamentals of the cell and molecular events that lead to human cancer.

Description: Micro- and macroevolutionary patterns and processes. Population genetics, evolutionary ecology, speciation, phylogenetic systematics, and biogeographic patterns of extant and extinct taxa.

Description: Introduction to the ecology and evolution of animal behavior.

Description: Ecological principles at the populations, community, and ecosystem levels. Population growth, meta-population dynamics, competitive and predatory interactions, temporal and spatial variation in community food webs, tropic cascades, patterns and mechanisms underlying species diversity, ecosystem processes, nutrient cycling, and global change.

Description: Biotic and abiotic factors as they influence insect development, behavior, distribution, and abundance.

Description: Microscopic anatomy of the tissues and organs of major vertebrate species, including humans. Normal cellular arrangements of tissues and organs as related to their macroscopic anatomy and function, with reference to sub-cellular characteristics and biochemical processes. Functional relationships among cells, tissues, organs and organ systems, contributory to organismal well being. General introduction to pathological processes and principles underlying some diseases.

Description: Discussion of skills needed to be a professional scientist including: writing, submitting, editing, and revision of journal articles and grant proposals; preparation or oral and poster presentations; and ethical issues in research and teaching.

Description: Genetic basis of human variation, with emphasis on methods of applying genetic principles to humankind. Genetic ratios in pooled data; population and quantitative genetics; consanguinity; polygenic inheritance; blood types; sex linkage; linkage and crossing over; sex determination; visible chromosome variation; mutation; heredity and environment; eugenics; anthropological genetics; molecular genetics and molecular basis of disease; human genome project.

Description: Basic conservation science theory and conservation decision making tools which are essential for making effective decisions for biodiversity conservation. Topics include systematic conservation planning, population viability analysis, risk assessment, and applying those tools to real conservation problems.

Description: In-depth study of the principles and methodology of genetics, with emphasis on Drosophila: multiple alleles and complex loci, linkage and recombination, chromosome rearrangements, fine structure analysis, sex determination, recombinant DNA, and gene function in development.

Description: Molecular basis of genetics. Gene structure and regulation, transposable elements, chromosome structure, DNA replication, and repair mechanisms and recombination.

Description: Diversity of microbial cell composition, structure, and function enabling movement, metabolism, symbiosis, and adaptation using bacterial, fungal, algal, and viral examples. A physiological, biochemical and molecular approach used throughout.

Description: Comprehensive survey of comparative physiology with emphasis on the diversity of adaptations in basic physiological systems and the effects of environmental parameters upon such systems. Comparative physiology of osmoregulation, temperature regulation, metabolism, muscle, central nervous function, and sensory function.

Description: Analysis and interpretation of the Quaternary period's paleoecological data. Patterns of long-term climate variation. Distribution patterns and responses of organisms and ecosystems to Quaternary environmental change.

Description: Chemical cycling at or near the earth's surface, emphasizing interactions among the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere and hydrosphere. Modern processes, the geological record, and human impacts on elemental cycles.

Description: Introduction to the use of plants for basic and applied purposes by deliberate manipulation of their genomes; techniques in plant genetic engineering; manipulations of plant development and metabolism; engineering pest, disease, and stress resistance; plants as bioreactors; and environmental and social impacts of plant biotechnology.

Description: Fundamentals of the analysis of high throughput experiments to understand complex biological systems. Principles and methods such as next generation sequencing, protein-protein interaction networks, regulatory networks, and biological data mining and integration. Emerging research in new biotechnology and data analysis in biomedical and life sciences.

Description: Basic knowledge and skills needed for general bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics analyses. Various computational analyses including database search, sequence alignment, phylogenetic reconstruction, gene prediction/mining, microarray data analyses and protein structure analyses.

Description: Principles of phylogenetic inference and emphasis on the application of phylogenetic hypotheses in biology and the biomedical sciences. How inferences derived from phylogenetic trees can be applied in different areas of biological investigation including systematics, biogeography, conservation biology, molecular evolution, genome structure, epidemiology, population biology, ecology, character evolution, behavior, and macroevolution.

Description: Introduction to science communication, formal versus informal science education, and best practices in informal science education. Review of state and national science standards and how students learn. Introduction to informal science practitioners and facilities in Nebraska. Role playing and development and implementation of hands on, inquiry-based science activities. Training in evaluation and assessment.

Description: Structure and function of proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids; nature of enzymes; major metabolic pathways of catabolism; and biochemical energy production.

Description: Major metabolic pathways of anabolism, structural and biochemical aspects of biological information flow and use in biotechnology.

Description: Introduction to techniques used in biochemical and biotechnology research, including measurement of pH, spectroscopy, analysis of enzymes, chromatography, fractionation of macromolecules, electrophoresis, and centrifugation.

Description: Biochemical metabolism unique to plants. Relationships of topics previously acquired in general biochemistry to biochemical processes unique to plants. Biochemical mechanisms behind physiological processes discussed in plant or crop physiology.

Description: Application of evolutionary tools to biomedical questions. Managing the evolution of drug resistance and pathogen virulence. Evolutionary principles of vaccine design. Emerging infectious disease. Human evolutionary history. Life-history trade-offs in human evolution. Parent-offspring and parent-parent conflict. Mismatch hypothesis. Hygiene hypothesis.

Description: Species-area relationships, latitudinal gradients in species richness, abundance diversity relationships, ecological scaling relationships with body size, community assembly, evolutionary dynamics, climate change, and human impacts on the ecology of the Anthropocene.

Description: Methods approach to systems biology analysis. Molecular identification and quantification employing techniques such as mass spectrometry, chromatography, electrophoretic fractionation, transcriptomics, protemics and metabolomics. Data and pathway analysis with computational methods.

Description: To introduce and integrate, students in biochemistry and other life sciences, to the field of computational modeling of biochemical and biological network systems into a seamless curriculum.

Description: Molecular approaches to the study of prokaryotic cell structure and physiology, including growth, cell division, metabolism, and alternative microbial life styles.

Description: Fundamental principles involved in host-microorganism interrelationships. Identification of pathogens, isolation, propagation, mode of transmission, pathogenicity, symptoms, treatment, prevention of disease, epidemiology, and methods of control.

Description: Mammalian endocrine glands from the standpoint of their structure, their physiological function in relation to the organism, the chemical nature and mechanisms of action of their secretory products, and the nature of anomalies manifested with their dysfunction.

Description: Fundamental consideration of cellular and humoral mechanisms of immunity, the structure and function of immunoglobulins, antigen-antibody interactions; hypersensitivity; transplantation and tumor immunity; immune and autoimmune disorders.

Description: An introduction into the role that microorganisms play and have played in natural and man-made environments. Topics covered include microbial diversity and physiology in soil, sediment, and water; microbes in Earth history; biogeochemical cycling; mineral formation and dissolution; biodegradation and bioremediation; biotechnology.

Description: Nature, physiology, and interactions of microorganisms in foods. Introduction to food-borne diseases, the effect of food processing systems on the microflora of foods, principles of food preservation, food spoilage, and foods produced by microorganisms. Food plant sanitation and criteria for establishing microbial standards for food products.

Description: The microorganisms in foods and the methods used to study them.

Description: Plant growth and development specifically of woody plants as viewed from an applied whole-plant physiological level. Plant growth regulators, structure and secondary growth characteristics of woody plants, juvenility, senescence, abscission and dormancy.

Description: Principles of population dynamics. Management strategies (for consumptive and nonconsumptive fish and wildlife species) presented utilizing principles developed.

Description: Overview of the key traits, relationships and evolutionary dynamics of invertebrate animals over Earth's history, particularly over the Phanerozoic (i.e., the last 540 million years). Emphasis on the use of invertebrate fossil record to test ideas about long term evolutionary patterns as well as learning the histories and basic anatomies of major invertebrate taxa.

Description: Principles of epidemiology and the role in modern medicine. Combination of theory and practice with living populations.

Description: Conservation and management of native and invasive predators. Functional and numerical responses. Evolution of predator-prey interactions. Optimal foraging. Modeling predator-prey population dynamics. Trophic cascades. Prey defenses against predation.

Description: Nature and characteristics of populations and communities. Interactions within and between populations in community structure and dynamics. Direct and indirect interactions and ecological processes, competition, predation, parasitism, herbivory, and pollination. Structure, functioning and persistence of natural communities, foodweb dynamics, succession, and biodiversity.

Description: Biological systems, from molecules to ecosystems, are analyzed using mathematical techniques. Strengths and weaknesses of mathematical approaches to biological questions. Brief review of college level math; introduction to modeling; oscillating systems in biology; randomness in biology; review of historically important and currently popular models in biology.

Description: Processes controlling the cycling of energy and elements in ecosystems and how both plant and animal species influence them. Human-influenced global and local changes that alter these cycles and ecosystem functioning.

Description: Physical, chemical, and biological processes that occur in fresh water. Organisms occurring in fresh water and their ecology; biological productivity of water and its causative factors; eutroplication and its effects.

Description: Soil from a microbe's perspective-growth, activity and survival strategies; principles governing methods to study microorganisms and biochemical processes in soil; mechanisms controlling organic matter cycling and stabilization with reference to C, N, S, and P; microbial interactions with plants and animals; and agronomic and environmental applications of soil microorganisms.

Description: Introduction to animal behavior stressing the ethological approach. Anatomical and physiological bases of behavior, ontogenetic and phylogenetic observations, and the relations of animal behavior studies to genetics, ecology, taxonomy, and evolution.

Description: Relationship of physiological variables to behavior, an introduction to laboratory techniques in neuropsychology.

Description: Examination of current technologies and methodologies used in neuroscience pertaining to medical, laboratory, and industrial applications across several organisms.

Description: Overview of the diversity of plants and algae, with emphasis on phylogenetic relationships, the evolution of important physical and genomic characteristics, principles of plant classification and identification, and modern methods of plant molecular systematics. Lab work on taxonomic analysis and plant identification.

Description: Fossil and living amphibians and reptiles. Anatomy, classification, ecology and evolution.

Description: Biology of birds emphasizing the behavior and ecology of this group. Topics include avian diversity, systematics & evolutionary history, flight, foraging, migration, communication, reproductive biology, population ecology and conservation biology.

Description: Avian field identification in diverse prairie, riparian, and montane habitats. Individual studies of foraging behavior, territoriality, anti-predator behavior, mating systems, or nesting ecology.

Description: Evolution, natural history, ecology, and functional morphology of planetary mammals and mammals of the Northern Great Plains.

Description: Pairwise and multiple alignments, sequence similarity and domain search, distance estimation, phylogenetic methods, gene mining, protein classification and structure. Algorithms used in bioinformatics as well as fundamental concepts of molecular evolution that underlie various bioinformatics methods.

Description: Development, structure, and function of tissues and organs of the higher plants. Relationships of structure to physiology and ecology of plants.

Description: Ecology and evolutionary biology of living arachnids.

Description: Biology and ecology of aquatic insects.

Description: Identification of aquatic insects to the family level.

Description: Animal host-parasite relationships, epizootiology, ecology, host distribution, classification, and life cycle stages of animal parasites.

Description: Fishes, their taxonomy, physiology, behavior, and ecology. Dynamics of fish stocks and factors regulating their production.

Description: Topics vary.

Description: The mechanisms by which DNA and RNA viruses evolve. The relationships between virulence, attenuation and host selection. Transfer of genetic material between virus and host. Evolution of HIV leading to escape from immunologic pressure or drug selection.

Description: Viral oncogenes and the cellular pathways that they influence. The mechanisms by which DNA and RNA viruses cause cancer. Discovery of novel tumor viruses.

Description: Protein structure and function.

Description: Kinetics regulation and reaction mechanisms of enzymes.

Description: Detailed examination of dynamic control mechanisms of genome maintenance and gene regulation. Mechanisms of transcription, translation, and replication based on analysis of current and seminal literature.

Description: Current metabolic research at the bioenergetic, metabolomic, and molecular level. The normal metabolic processes that go awry in cancer, obesity, and oxidative stress.

Description: Prokaryotic gene regulation, DNA exchange, DNA recombination and repair, comparative prokaryotic genomics and computer-based methods of analysis.

Description: Role of RNA in regulation of gene expression and in determining genome structure. Regulation of mRNA stability and function, RNA as regulatory molecules and enzymes, and computer-based methods of analysis.

Description: Biosynthetic activity of bacteria, yeasts, and fungi, including genetically engineered organisms: antibiotic, amino acid, enzyme, and vitamin production; polysaccharides, steroid transformation, microbes as food sources, microbial insecticides, petroleum microbiology, fermentation engineering, and mass production of microbial cells.

Description: Covers the use of maximum likelihood and Bayesian analysis in analyzing ecological data broadly defined. A conceptual understanding of the statistical tools is emphasized as well as a practical experience of conducting the analysis using real data and current software.

Description: Methods and principles of systematics and nomenclature.

Description: Course work in physics recommended. Advanced introduction to the evolution of animal communication. Addresses evolution of signal structure (including acoustic, visual, electrical, and chemical signals), environmental effects on signal transmission, and the evolution of receiver responses to signals.

Description: Molecular basis of genetics in eukaryotes. Gene structure and regulation, transposable elements, chromosome structure, DNA replication and repair mechanisms and recombination.

Description: Gain practical knowledge of the R programming language for statistical analysis, graphics, data management and simulations in the biological sciences.

Description: Research other than thesis.

Description: Reviews of specialized subject areas. Subject dependent on student demand and availability of staff.