This domain emphasis will no longer be offered after Spring 2022. Any student wishing to declare or change to this domain emphases must submit their declaration or change request to Data Science Advising by Friday of the last week of Spring 2022.

Students interested in this area who will declare after Spring 2022 are encouraged to consider the domain emphasis in Computational Methods in Molecular and Genomic Biology.

This domain emphasis will prepare students for work or graduate school in bioinformatics of computational biology with a focus on molecular biology.  Students with this emphasis will be able to understand how computational methods are used to elucidate the mechanisms of cellular processing of genetic data and will prepare them for computational analyses of DNA and other molecular biological data.

From the lists shown below, students will select one course from the lower-division, and two courses from the upper-division. The lower division course is a required element of the Domain Emphasis.


Courses in this domain emphasis are often restricted by major to enroll, and several have extensive prerequisites. It may be difficult to complete this emphasis given these restrictions. Students are advised to make appropriate alternate plans.

 Prerequisites are shown within square brackets.

Lower Division

  • BIOLOGY 1A. General Biology Lecture (3 units) [Prerequisite: CHEM 1A; Co-requisite: BIOLOGY 1AL]

Upper Division (select two)

  • MCELLBI C100A / CHEM 130. Biophysical Chemistry: Physical Principles and the Molecules of Life (4 units) [Prerequisites: CHEM 3A, BIO 1A+1AL]

  • MCELLBI 102. Survey of the Principles of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (4 Units) [Prerequisite: BIO 1A]

  • MCELLBI 104. Genetics, Genomics and Cell Biology (4 units) [Prerequisite: MCELLBI 102]

  • MCELLBI 132. Biology of Human Cancer (4 units) [Prerequisite: MCELLBI 102]

  • MCELLBI 140. General Genetics (4 units) [Prerequisites: BIO 1A+1AL]

  • MCELLBI 143. Evolution of Genomes, Cells and Development (3 units) [Prerequisite: MCELLBI 102]

  • MCELLBI/PLANTBI C148. Microbial Genetics and Genomics (4 units) [Prerequisite: MCELLBI 102]

  • MCELLBI 153. Molecular Therapeutics (4 units) [Prerequisites: BIO 1A, MCELLBI 102, C100A or CHEM 135]

  • PLANTBI 160. Plant Molecular Genetics.  (4 units) [Prerequisites: BIO 1A, BIO 1B]


We recognize in general that to satisfy the prerequisites for these courses below, a student will have already satisfied the Domain Emphasis. Because these courses are natural to include in this emphasis, they will function as an elective for many students who take them. They are included here merely for those students who get to these courses from nontraditional paths, for whom these courses should count towards the DE.
  • MCELLBI 130. Cell and Systems Biology (4 units) [Prerequisites: MCELLBI 102, 104]

  • MCELLBI 149. The Human Genome (3 units) [Prerequisite: MCELLBI 104 or 140] OR

    • INTEGBI 164. Human Genetics and Genomics (4 units) [Prerequisite: BIO 1A, BIO 1B]