Genomic Medicine: Pre-Medicine Track, B.S.

Learn more about the Bachelor of Science in Genomic Medicine: Pre-Medicine Track.

Develop a deep understanding of the role of the genomes of humans and pathogens in the development, prevention, and treatment of disease with the Bachelor of Science in Genomic Medicine. Scientific innovations and technologies allow us to collect genetic information at unprecedented size and scale. At the center of this advancement is the study of the genome. Information from thousands—and soon to be millions—of genomes is revealing the root causes of our genetic and infectious diseases. Due to the growing clinical emphasis on genomic medicine in medical colleges, students in the Genomic Medicine program will acquire a valuable basis for understanding and working with modern biological data. Graduates also gain a foundation in the life sciences that emphasizes the medical relevance of genomics, evolutionary biology, and informatics. This degree will prepare students for growing trends in research and medical careers focused on genomic medicine that use the power of changes in genes, proteins, and next generation technologies to make clinical diagnoses, treat patients, and understand diseases.

Blending psychology and sociology courses with an increased focus on coursework required by most medical schools—biochemistry, cell structure, and function, and bioinformatics or biostatistics—the Pre-Medicine Track prepares graduates for entry into medical school and STEM research careers in medicine.

Undergraduate Contact Information:

Dr. Robert Sanders, Chair
Biology-Life Sciences Building, Room 255
215-204-8851

Dr. Erik Cordes, Vice Chair
Biology-Life Sciences Building, Room 315A
215-204-8876

Dr. Joel Sheffield, Faculty Advisor
Juniors/Seniors, Research Questions
Biology-Life Sciences Building, Room 311
215-204-8839
jbs@temple.edu

Dr. Angela Bricker, Faculty Advisor
First Year Students/Sophomore Year Students
Biology-Life Sciences Building, Room 248C
215-204-8578
abricker@temple.edu

Dr. Sudhir Kumar, Program Director
Science Education and Research Center, Room 601A
215-204-1647
s.kumar@temple.edu

Summary of Requirements for the Degree

1. University Requirements (123 total s.h.)
   • Students must complete all University requirements including those listed below.
   • All Temple students must take a minimum of two writing-intensive courses at Temple as part of their major. The specific writing-intensive course options for this major are: 

     Course List

     Code	Title	Credit Hours
     BIOL 2296	Genetics	4
     BIOL 3096	Cell Structure and Function	4
     BIOL 3396	Scientific Writing for Biology: The Art of Communicating	3

   • Students must complete the General Education (GenEd) requirements.
     • See the General Education section of the Undergraduate Bulletin for the GenEd curriculum.
     • Students who complete CST majors receive a waiver for 2 Science & Technology (GS) and 1 Quantitative Literacy (GQ) GenEd courses.
   • Students must satisfy general Temple University residency requirements.
2. College Requirements
   • 45 Upper Level (2000+) credits within the College of Science & Technology (CST), the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), or the College of Engineering (ENG).
   • 90 credits within the College of Science & Technology (CST), the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), or the College of Engineering (ENG).
   • All students in the College of Science and Technology are required to take a one credit first year seminar. SCTC 1001 CST First Year Seminar is the appropriate course option for every entering first year CST major. Transfer students should use SCTC 2001 CST Transfer Seminar to fulfill this requirement. Other courses that fulfill this requirement may be found on the CST College Requirements page.
3. Major Requirements for Bachelor of Science (85-87 s.h.)
   At least 9 courses required for the major must be completed at Temple. At least 6 Biology courses must be completed at Temple.

   Course List

   Code	Title	Credit Hours
   Biology
   BIOL 1111	Introduction to Organismal Biology	4
   or BIOL 1911	Honors Introduction to Organismal Biology
   BIOL 2112	Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology	4
   or BIOL 2912	Honors Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology
   BIOL 2296	Genetics (S)	4
   BIOL 2512	(S)	3
   BIOL 3096	Cell Structure and Function (F)	4
   BIOL 3101	Evolution (F)	3
   BIOL 3112	Fundamentals of Genomic Evolutionary Medicine (S)	3
   BIOL 3511	(F)	3
   Select one of the following:		3
   BIOL 3212	Introduction to Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
   BIOL 3312	Biostatistics (F)
   BIOL 3396	Scientific Writing for Biology: The Art of Communicating (S)	3
   Chemistry
   Select one of the following:		4
   CHEM 1031 & CHEM 1033	General Chemistry I and General Chemistry Laboratory I
   CHEM 1951 & CHEM 1953	Honors General Chemical Science I and Honors Chemical Science Laboratory I (F)
   Select one of the following:		4
   CHEM 1032 & CHEM 1034	General Chemistry II and General Chemistry Laboratory II
   CHEM 1952 & CHEM 1954	Honors General Chemical Science II and Honors Chemical Science Laboratory II (S)
   Select one of the following:		4
   CHEM 2201 & CHEM 2203	Organic Chemistry I and Organic Chemistry Laboratory I
   CHEM 2921 & CHEM 2923	Organic Chemistry for Honors I and Organic Honors Laboratory I (F)
   Select one of the following:		4
   CHEM 2202 & CHEM 2204	Organic Chemistry II and Organic Chemistry Laboratory II
   CHEM 2922 & CHEM 2924	Organic Chemistry for Honors II and Organic Honors Laboratory II (S)
   CHEM 3401	Applications of Biochemistry	3
   Computer & Information Sciences
   Select one of the following:		4
   CIS 1051	Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming in Python
   CIS 1057	Computer Programming in C
   CIS 1068	Program Design and Abstraction
   or CIS 1968	Honors Program Design and Abstraction
   Genome Medicine Electives
   Select two of the following: 1		6-8
   BIOL 2233	Mammalian Anatomy (F)
   BIOL 3111	Genomics in Medicine (F)
   BIOL 3128	Genomics and Infectious Disease Dynamics (F)
   BIOL 3201	Human Genetics (F)
   BIOL 3211	Human Evolution
   BIOL 3212	Introduction to Bioinformatics and Computational Biology 2
   BIOL 3225	Evolutionary Genetics (S)
   BIOL 3232	Behavioral Genetics (F)
   BIOL 3241	Genomics and Evolutionary Biology of Parasites and Other Dependent Species (S)
   BIOL 3243	Parasitology
   BIOL 3265	Developmental Biology (F)
   BIOL 3301	Advanced Cell Biology (F)
   BIOL 3312	Biostatistics 2
   BIOL 3317	General Microbiology (S)
   BIOL 3324	Molecular Biology (F)
   BIOL 3325	Research Techniques in Molecular Biology (S)
   BIOL 3327	Immunology (S)
   BIOL 3328	Virology (F)
   BIOL 3329	Developmental Genetics
   BIOL 3334	Mammalian Physiology (S)
   BIOL 3356	Organization and Development of the Nervous System (S)
   BIOL 3358	Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience (S)
   BIOL 3361	Molecular Neuropharmacology
   BIOL 3363	Mammalian Development
   BIOL 3367	Endocrinology (F)
   BIOL 3368	Biology of Cancer (S)
   BIOL 3371	Cell Proliferation (S)
   BIOL 3373	Cell Signaling (S)
   BIOL 3374	Physical Biochemistry (S)
   BIOL 3380	Contemporary Biology
   BIOL 3403	Genomic Biology
   BIOL 4338	Epigenetics
   BIOL 4344	Research Techniques in Biochemistry (S)
   BIOL 4364	Biochemistry of Embryogenesis (F)
   BIOL 4365	Evolutionary Developmental Biology: Evo-Devo (S)
   BIOL 4366	Stem Cell Biology (F)
   BIOL 4375	General Biochemistry I (F)
   BIOL 4376	General Biochemistry II (F)
   CIS 2109	Database Management Systems
   CIS 2168	Data Structures
   CIS 3715	Principles of Data Science (S)
   CIS 4523	Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
   MATH 3031	Probability Theory I
   MATH 3032	Mathematical Statistics (S)
   MATH 4033	Probability Theory II (F)
   Mathematics
   MATH 1041	Calculus I	4
   or MATH 1941	Honors Calculus I
   Select one of the following:		4
   MATH 1042	Calculus II
   or MATH 1942	Honors Calculus II
   MATH 1044	Introduction to Probability and Statistics for the Life Sciences
   Physics
   PHYS 2021	General Physics I	4
   or PHYS 2921	Honors General Physics I
   PHYS 2022	General Physics II	4
   or PHYS 2922	Honors General Physics II
   Social Sciences
   PSY 1001	Introduction to Psychology	3
   or PSY 1901	Honors: Introduction to Psychology
   Select one of the following:		3
   SOC 1176	Introduction to Sociology
   or SOC 1976	Honors Introduction to Sociology
   SOC 1576	Introduction to Sociology for Health Professions
   Total Credit Hours		85-87

   Course List

   Code	Title	Credit Hours
   (F) - Fall only course
   (S) - Spring only course

   1	Additional course prerequisites may be required.
   2	Either BIOL 3212 or BIOL 3312 must be taken to satisfy degree requirements. The course not selected may be chosen as a Genomic Medicine Elective.

Suggested Academic Plan

Bachelor of Science in Genomic Medicine: Pre-Medicine Track

Requirements for New Students starting in the 2021-2022 Academic Year

Year 1
Fall		Credit Hours
Select one of the following:		4
CHEM 1031 & CHEM 1033	General Chemistry I
CHEM 1951 & CHEM 1953	Honors General Chemical Science I (F)
MATH 1041 or 1941	Calculus I	4
SCTC 1001	CST First Year Seminar	1
Select one of the following:		4
CIS 1051	Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming in Python
CIS 1057	Computer Programming in C
CIS 1068 or 1968	Program Design and Abstraction
ENG 0802, 0812, or 0902	Analytical Reading and Writing [GW]	4
	Term Credit Hours	17
Spring
BIOL 1111 or 1911	Introduction to Organismal Biology	4
Select one of the following:		4
CHEM 1032 & CHEM 1034	General Chemistry II
CHEM 1952 & CHEM 1954	Honors General Chemical Science II (S)
Select one of the following:		4
MATH 1042 or 1942	Calculus II
MATH 1044	Introduction to Probability and Statistics for the Life Sciences
IH 0851 or 0951	Intellectual Heritage I: The Good Life [GY]	3
	Term Credit Hours	15
Year 2
Fall
BIOL 2112 or 2912	Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology	4
Select one of the following:		4
CHEM 2201 & CHEM 2203	Organic Chemistry I
CHEM 2921 & CHEM 2923	Organic Chemistry for Honors I (F)
IH 0852 or 0952	Intellectual Heritage II: The Common Good [GZ]	3
Select one of the following:		3
SOC 1176 or 1976	Introduction to Sociology
SOC 1576	Introduction to Sociology for Health Professions
	Term Credit Hours	14
Spring
BIOL 2512	(S)	3
BIOL 2296	Genetics [WI] (S)	4
Select one of the following:		4
CHEM 2202 & CHEM 2204	Organic Chemistry II
CHEM 2922 & CHEM 2924	Organic Chemistry for Honors II (S)
PSY 1001 or 1901	Introduction to Psychology	3
	Term Credit Hours	14
Year 3
Fall
BIOL 3511	(F)	3
BIOL 3101	Evolution (F)	3
CHEM 3401	Applications of Biochemistry	3
PHYS 2021 or 2921	General Physics I	4
GenEd Breadth Course		3
	Term Credit Hours	16
Spring
BIOL 3112	Fundamentals of Genomic Evolutionary Medicine	3
BIOL 3396	Scientific Writing for Biology: The Art of Communicating [WI]	3
PHYS 2022 or 2922	General Physics II	4
Genome Medicine Elective1		3-4
Elective		3-2
	Term Credit Hours	16
Year 4
Fall
BIOL 3096	Cell Structure and Function [WI] (F)	4
Select one of the following:		3
BIOL 3212	Introduction to Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
BIOL 3312	Biostatistics (F)
GenEd Breadth Course		3-4
GenEd Breadth Course		3
Elective		3-2
	Term Credit Hours	16
Spring
Genome Medicine Elective1		3-4
GenEd Breadth Course		3
GenEd Breadth Course		3
Elective		6-5
	Term Credit Hours	15
	Total Credit Hours:	123

Course List

Code	Title	Credit Hours
(F) - Fall only course
(S) - Spring only course

1	See the Genome Medicine Electives list under Requirements for course options.