Accelerated M.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

BCHB 5110: Fundamentals of Biochemistry
4 credits

Survey of fundamental concepts in biochemistry and molecular biology, with emphasis on metabolism.

BCHB 5130: Core Concepts of Biochemistry
4 credits

This is a survey course of core topics in biochemistry and molecular and cell biology, with emphasis on applications to biomedical research and biotechnology.

BIOT 5260: Core Methods in Biotechnology
3 credits

This course introduces the student to the scientific methodology of biotechnology and biochemistry. Topics include analysis, purification, and quantification of nucleic acids and proteins, PCR and qPCR applications, DNA microarrays, next generation sequencing, basic and advanced cloning techniques, protein-protein interactions, molecular diagnostics, protein and nucleic acid therapeutics, molecular vaccines, bionanotechnology, plant biotechnology, and product development.

BCHB 5760: Core Methods of Biochemistry
3 credits

This course is an introduction to core concepts of Molecular Biology. Methods used for analysis, purification, and quantitation of nucleic acids and proteins are discussed in-depth. Problem-solving sessions are included as part of the course.

BCHB 5360: Applications of Cell Culture
2 credits

This lecture and laboratory course provides biochemistry, biomedical, and biotechnology graduate students with a basic understanding and hands-on experience on modern applications of tissue/cell culture technology in the study of diverse topics in life sciences, including Molecular Biology, Toxicology, Tumor Biology, Pharmacology, and Biotechnology.

3 credits

This is a comprehensive hands-on, laboratory-based course that introduces students to core techniques such as electrophoretic analysis of nucleic acids and proteins, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Southern and Western blotting, ELISA, protein purification, tissue culture, DNA cloning, cell culture, and bioinformatics.

0 credits

This course will prepare and guide Biochemistry students for Internship (BCHB 7951) and inform them of the search process.

0 credits

This course will review scientific ethics and integrity, plagiarism and how to submit documents through TurnItIn as well as other program specific ethical issues.

0 credits

This is a required course for any student who will be in a course with a lab component.

4 credits
Prerequisite: BCHB 7950 Introduction to Biochemistry Internship

This is the capstone course in which students will be working to pursue defined objectives in companies in the biotechnology industry and agencies and institutions in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area. Internships can be in basic research, business functions, industrial and biomedical sciences or intellectual property.

1 credit

The sequencing of the human genome that was completed in 2001 and the explosion of “omic data” has accelerated our understanding of basic genetics and how we think of biology. We are now in the “omic” era of molecular biology that has given birth to the new field of Bioinformatics. All this data can be used meaningfully for biological and clinical research only if we can extract the relevant functional information from them and convert biological data into knowledge of biological systems. Fortunately, by using bioinformatics we can make headway in understanding and extracting relevant biological information from these sequences. The aim of this course is to introduce the various tools and resources that are available as applicable to biomedical research. This course is highly experiential with both lectures and “hands-on” sessions.

Visit our regular M.S. pages to find advanced laboratory courses.