Biology (BIOL-UH)

This course uses fundamental concepts from the Foundations of Science curriculum to examine essential elements of organ physiology, including the nervous system with an emphasis on humans. After an initial introduction to the basic principles of physiology, the course emphasizes normal and pathological functions in humans. It explores how the nervous and the endocrine systems allow communication among cells and organs to enable an organism to maintain homeostasis and to respond to environmental changes. The anatomy of the nervous system is also used to address structure, function, homeostasis and adaptability.

This course provides a concept-driven overview of the most fundamental concept in biology: evolution. The course explores the principles of evolutionary biology through lectures, discussion and basic genetic data analyses. Topics include variation, speciation, fitness, adaptation, mutation, genetic drift, natural selection, and phylogenetic systematics. The course focuses on developing students' understanding of these concepts while reviewing the evidence supporting evolutionary theory.

Why do offspring often exhibit physical features of their parents? Why do combinations of certain features in offspring translate into specific characteristics that either enhance or diminish the organism's fitness? The course covers the concepts, principles and research methods used in the field of genetics. Students learn about the major types of genetic variation and how they are generated, distributed and maintained across genomes and between individuals. The course covers concepts such as mutation, recombination, transmission systems, cytoplasmic inheritance, population genetics, and multifactorial inheritance. Emphasis is placed on patterns of Mendelian and non-Mendelian inheritance and the use of genetic methods to analyze protein function, gene regulation, and disease.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is home to biota that stretch across diverse habitats, from dry deserts to moderate-climate oases and mountaintops to saline and hypersaline aquatic environments. As a desert that contains part of the Empty Quarter, one of the harshest environments on Earth, the UAE harbors a variety of organisms that evolved to adapt to arid, dry and hot environments. As a coastal country with many islands and > 650 km of coastline, its subtropical-like weather harbors unique marine species that have adapted to extreme temperature changes and salinity variations. This course explores and celebrates the biodiversity of the UAE by introducing students to the flora and fauna of the region. Students will learn about the topics through lectures from the instructors, seminars by invited speakers who conduct research in ecology and evolution and assigned scientific literature readings that will be discussed during class. An integral component of the course is field work. Students will participate in several field trips around the region to observe, learn and collect biota in different habitats. Field work will also expose students to next-generation sequencing analysis.

The research seminar provides students with an overview of the diverse multidisciplinary research areas that have captured the interest and fascination of NYU Abu Dhabi biologists and others in related fields. Through exposure to faculty research, students identify areas of interest for their own capstone research, and develop and write an in-depth research proposal over the course of the semester. The final capstone proposal is due at the end of the seminar so that students can begin the Capstone Project in Biology 1. All majors in Biology are required to complete the Research Seminar in Biology during the fall semester of their junior year. Students who have chosen Biology as their secondary major do not need to complete the research seminar course; students must instead take two courses in their chosen elective which are not research courses.

The behavioral response of an animal to a stimulus is the summed effect of a variety of internally coordinated processes starting at the molecular level and resulting in a change of activity in associated neural circuits. This course covers the molecular, physiological and anatomical bases of behavior, with particular emphasis on mammalian sensory, motor, regulatory, and motivational mechanisms. Students will also consider higher mental processes such as those involved in language and memory.

What is the nature of biological information? How is it read and decoded? How is it reliably passed from one generation to another? How are errors during DNA replication and protein synthesis corrected? How is cell fate determined? These and other questions will be answered in the course. In particular, the molecular biology course will help students understand concepts and techniques required to answer fundamental questions in molecular biology. Students will also learn how to design experiments, test hypotheses and interpret results. Finally, they will get the opportunity to review research papers and critically analyze experimental data.

This course offers a comprehensive view of modern immunology at the evolutionary, cellular and molecular levels and enables the students to understand the defense mechanisms in the vertebrate immune system. The course presents the major groups of pathogens and their transmission. The fundamental principles of cellular and molecular immunology will be discussed, with emphasis upon the interrelationships between innate and adaptive host defense. The nature of immunological specificity and its underlying molecular biology will be presented. This will be followed by a discussion on the emergence and evolution of the vertebrate immune system. The course concludes with presentation and discussion of new and emerging concepts and methodologies in tumor immunology and treatment of infectious diseases.

Can we understand how the brain works at the level of individual cells, genes and even molecules? This seminar course provides students with broad exposure to current questions and experimental approaches in molecular and cellular neuroscience. Classes are organized into three modules: the control of neuronal cell form and its developmental determinants; neuronal cell function; and the mechanisms underlying neuronal signaling and synaptic plasticity.

The loss of biodiversity is one of the most rapid forms of environmental changes imposed by human on our planet. Conservation biology is the study of the factors that are responsible for the loss, maintenance and restoration of biodiversity. It is a highly inter-disciplinary field, which requires in-depth understanding of ecology and evolutionary biology. In its application, conservation biology must also take into account the sociological, economical and ethical impact of biodiversity protection. This course will first explore the processes responsible for the establishment and maintenance of biodiversity as well as the multiple benefits of biodiversity for the function of ecosystems and for human use. The impact of habitat loss, overexploitation and invasive species on biodiversity will be discussed. This will be followed by an exploration of strategies used by conservation biology to combat these threats. These topics will be further investigated by the in-depth study of some of the most pressing threats, including overfishing, the impact of climate changes and the loss of tropical rainforests.

The ability to organize and analyze biological data is an essential research tool. This course provides an introduction to the quantitative methods used to analyze biological data. The course will introduce topics such as describing and displaying data, probability, hypothesis testing, how to design experiments, and others. Hands-on experience will be provided through exercises using biological data and R, a free open-source statistical software.

RNA biology is one of the most actively investigated areas of life science today. Sharing properties with both DNA and proteins, RNA molecules can replicate themselves and catalyze biochemical reactions within their functional capacity. Some viruses have their whole genomes made of RNA, but we humans have evolved to use DNA for storing genetic information and inheritance, and proteins for catalytic function. Recently scientists have begun to harness the power of RNA in life science and medicine (e.g. COVID-19 mRNA vaccine). Through this course, we will gain basic knowledge about RNA molecules and how they operate in healthy and diseased cells. We start with how they differ from their peer DNA molecules, and go through their processing, maturation, cytoplasmic export in eukaryotes, regulated degradation, translation, and localization. We will update ourselves with the most recently emerged techniques for RNA investigations, and finally we will touch upon RNA as a new generation of medicine resource.

This course offers a comprehensive view of basic and frontier stem cell biology at the cellular and molecular levels, and their applications, such as regenerative medicine, tissue engineering and drug discovery. This course will introduce the definition of stem cell and its variety. The cutting-edge methods to investigate the cellular identities, isolate the cells of interests, and characterize their phenotypes and functions will be introduced. This course will introduce how stem cells provide the diversity of cell types, the resulting tissue formation with their proper functionality. This course will also introduce stem cell functions in pathological situations. Finally, the course will conclude the introduction and discussion of the biomedical applications of stem cells for drug screening and regenerative medicine.

Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary science that uses computational tools to solve biological problems. With the development of high throughput DNA sequencing technologies, large volumes of biological data have been generated, and computational tools have become indispensable in biological data analysis. Bioinformatics focuses on the fundamental concepts, ideas, and related biological applications of existing bioinformatics tools. This course will provide hands-on experience in applying bioinformatics software tools to analyze experimental biological data, and it will also introduce scripting language tools typically used to automate some biological data analysis tasks. Topics include (but not limited to) Sequence Alignment, Classification & Clustering, RNA-seq & Gene Expression Analysis (transcriptome analysis), Hidden Markov Models, Gene Prediction, Phylogenetics, Comparative genomics/metagenomics, etc. This course is designed as an interdisciplinary introductory course in bioinformatics for junior/senior students in Computer Science and Biology. Students are expected to have a fundamental background in either molecular biology or computer science, but not necessarily both.

The course will cover fundamental principles of developmental biology in animals. This topic is one of the most important in biology and medicine because it links evolution, genetics, cell biology, biophysics and disease. The aim of the course is to understand how genetic and epigenetic processes regulate the formation of an animal during embryogenesis. The first part will cover cellular differentiation and diversification, intercellular signaling, cell adhesion and movement, the role of mechanical forces in shaping tissues and organs. This part will also briefly touch upon concepts of cellular pluri- and multi-potency. The second part of the course will mainly cover advanced topics with a focus on gastrulation, organogenesis, growth control, organ homeostasis and regeneration Evo-Devo, and inborn errors of development that lead to disease in humans. Every part will be illustrated with examples from model and non-model organisms, review some early key discoveries in the field and examine the latest publications that have advanced the understanding of embryogenesis through technological innovation, including microscopy, transcriptomics, genome engineering, organoids, and machine learning.

Biophysics uses the laws of physics and their associated mathematical principles to gain an understanding of living systems, primarily by examining forces and interactions among molecules found in cells. This course begins with a thorough review of cells, with a special emphasis on eukaryotes and their different compartments. This section is followed by an investigation of the structures and functions of biological macromolecules, including proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and lipids. Students gain a deep understanding of information flow in cells via detailed biophysical analysis of replication and gene expression.

Special Topics in Biology offers high-level courses or seminars on a wide variety of topics in the life sciences. Topics vary from semester to semester.

This course explores the role of individual molecules and the morphological and physiological properties of single neurons in the nervous system. Both molecular and cellular neurobiology have revolutionized research on cognitive processes and psychiatric disorders. Cell neurobiology has led to understanding the processes of neural coding at both the single cell and the circuit level. This course combines lectures, class discussions, and lab experiments to explore applications of cellular neurobiology in research. In addition to cellular physiology, this course examines brain activity dynamics and investigate neural interface systems. The course engages students in a guided research project as well as scientific writing and data reporting.

Molecular biology has revolutionized biological research during the past few decades. This course combines seminars, class discussions and presentations, and lab experiments that will allow students to explore applications of molecular biology in modern biological research, as well as learn scientific writing and data reporting. A focus of the course will be p53, a tumor suppressor protein that is mutated in over half of all human cancers, making it the most mutated protein in cancer and a key target in the development of cancer therapeutics. Through guided research exercises, students will learn basic and advanced molecular biology techniques that will be used to understand the role of p53 mutations in cancer development and progression and investigate p53-targeted cancer therapeutic strategies.

Synthetic biology aims to use state-of-the-art molecular tools to redesign biological systems by employing the approaches of engineering. The guiding principle in designing synthetic projects is often derived from a systems-level understanding of cellular networks, with metabolic network analyses playing a key role in offering informed hypotheses on how to modify cellular wirings for a desired outcome. This course combines lectures, class discussions, and lab experiments. The course engages students in a guided research project to learn advanced molecular techniques and systems-level analysis. Students become familiar with engineering concepts such as defining biological components as "parts" and cataloging them in synthetic biology parts registries.

A typical cell expresses thousands of gene products and synthesizes nearly as many metabolites. How do these components interact with each other and what are the rules governing such interactions? Systems biology attempts first to define what the cell's parts list is, then through establishing how these elements interact, define the emergent properties of such interactions. This course combines lecture, class discussions, and lab experiments to explore key elements of systems biology while exploring the genetic basis of disorders with complex inheritance pattern. Students will carry out high-throughput transcriptome sequencing of human brain RNA samples to measure the expression of gene products implicated in complex neurological disorders. Clustering, gene-set enrichment, and network reconstruction will be carried out to explore the relationship between gene expression and gene function. Last, students will be introduced to yeast two-hybrid technology and reconstruction of networks based on existing Y2H datasets will be carried out and studied.

The Capstone Project in Biology requires students to engage in long-term, mentored research that culminates in the composition of an original paper. Students are expected to engage in a laboratory-based or field-based research project. However, under circumstances based on career trajectory, students may complete a theoretical treatise to explore a new and interesting idea in the life sciences that requires merging extant theories and data to develop novel and testable predictions about specific biological phenomena. The project is developed during fall of the third year as part of the Research Seminar in Biology. During the capstone research experience, students are fully immersed in the daily life of the laboratory. This approach allows students to experience the teamwork required to succeed in research and to foster a relationship with biology faculty who will act as their mentors. Upon completion of their project, students present and discuss the results of their work in a senior thesis following the formatting standards of a leading biology journal.

Continuation of BIOL-UH 4001