BIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL ETHICS (BIOL 215) - This course focusses on both ethical theory and applied ethics. The Ethical Theory portion of the course covers: (A) utilitarianism (or, more generally consequentialism), (B) Kant’s ethical theory (or, more generally, deontology), and (C) Aristotle’s ethical theory (or, more generally, virtue ethics). The Applied Ethics portion of the course will follow topics such as: Ethical Problems of Death and Dying; Abortion and Maternal-Fetal Conflict; New Methods of Reproduction (IVF, cloning); The Ethics of Transplants; The Ethics of Testing and Screening; The Ethics of Biomedical Research (Scientific Integrity, IRBs and Informed Consent, Conflict of Interest, Animal Experimentation, Human Stem Cells, Fetal Research, and Gene Therapy.
MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY (BIOL 332) - This hybrid course is designed to instill in the student a medical vocabulary associated with body systems and diseases, laboratory safety and infection control. This course also provides students with the basic principles of medical word building including medical prefixes, suffixes and word roots used in medical nomenclature. Correct spelling, medical definitions and abbreviations will also be emphasized. This course is a must-take for students interested in any aspect of health care.
THE CURE: FROM BENCH TO BEDSIDE (BIOL 445) - This unique course focusses on the several research and treatment aspects of cancer which is a leading cause of death in the developed world. Cancer continues to be a field with extensive research performed over many years to develop cancer-related therapies. This 400-level, writing intensive course, is team taught by research scientists from Fox Chase Cancer Center and explores the differences between normal cells and cancer cells, and how these differences are exploited to develop therapeutic strategies. The process of therapy design and testing in the laboratory as well as the clinic will be discussed for cancer-specific treatments including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and more. How clinical trials are designed, and the ethics and disparities of clinical trials, are reviewed. Finally, important skills including problem solving, critical thinking, and written and oral science communication are addressed and practiced. The course will be partially lecture-based and includes learning through in-class activities and student presentations. This course draws from the knowledge in molecular biology, cellular biology, and genetics of human disease.
>>For all course descriptions for this major, SEE SCHOOL OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES CATALOG
Requirements/Prerequisites:
No pre-requisites for declaration and admission into the Biology major. A C- or better must be received for all major-required and also-required natural science courses
