Advanced Cellular Biology

Despite the broad catalog blurb, the actual focus here is cell signaling — how cells read external cues and convert them into decisions about growth, differentiation, and death, with development, stem cells, and cancer as the recurring case studies. Weekly lectures walk through receptor classes (GPCRs, RTKs, TGF-β, Wnt/Hh) and the logic of pathway crosstalk, while you carry the load through a presentation, a take-home midterm, and a written final that expect you to reason about pathways rather than recite them. As a Spring graduate-level required course building on undergrad cell biology and biochemistry, it's the conceptual backbone for downstream work in cancer biology, developmental genetics, and pharmacological research.