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UW Genetics Courses

In addition to IPHG offerings, we encourage students to build a strong emphasis on public health genetics in their course of study by exploring related coursework offered by other departments. Because this is a highly interdisciplinary field, there are related courses offered by many other departments on our campus. Some examples are:

Are you interested in something else specifically tailored to what interests you in public health genetics? Keep in mind that you can search the UW course catalog by adding "site:https://www.washington.edu/students/crscat/" to a google search for whatever your topic of interest is, to get a list of which departments include that term in their course catalog listings. Remember that courses with a 1XX-4XX designation are for undergraduates, while 5XX courses are generally for graduate students only.

For example, if you find yourself wanting to know more about drug design after a lecture on how genetic epidemiology research can help optimize that process, you can do this google search and discover that Pharmacy AND Pharmaceutics both offer undergraduate courses on this very topic.

  •  Biology teaches many genetics-related courses.
    • Of particular note is the introductory biology series: the first two of which (BIOL 180 Ecology, Evolution and Genetics and BIOL 200 Cell, Molecular and Developmental Biology) must be taken to unlock Genetics coursework aimed specifically at scientists so it makes sense to take those sooner in your university career rather than later. BIOL 240 Intensive Introductory Biology with Human Health Emphasis is an alternate track.
    • Upper level coursework in the biology department includes many genetics-relevant options. Here are some highlights by field:
      • Lab techniques courses that include wetlab genetics and some bench-intergrated bioinformatics: BIOL 302 Laboratory Techniques in Cell and Molecular Biology (includes genetics techniques), BIOL 402 Functional Genomics.
      • Evolution: BIOL 354 Foundations in Evolution and Systematics, BIOL 449 Applied Phylogenetics (trees documenting evolution).
      • Disease: BIOL 385 Evolutionary Medicine and Public Health, BIOL 405 Cellular and Molecular Biology of Human Disease (noninfectious).
      • Ecology: BIOL 340 Genetics and Molecular Ecology.
      • Brains: BIOL 458 Behavioral Genetics, BIOL 407 Molecular Cell Biology of Neural Stem Cells, BIOL 408 Neuroethology.
      • Developmental biology: BIOL 413 Molecular Genetics of Development, BIOL 416 Molecular Genetics of Plant Development, BIOL 411 Developmental Biology, BIOL 412 Developmental Biology Lab, BIOL 415 Evolution and Development.
  • Genome Sciences is genetics looked at with a larger scale, so this department is obviously going to have extremely relevant course offerings all around. Note that courses without prerequisites are currently not being offered regularly.
    • The most important course to prioritize is introductory genetics for scientists: a choice of GENOME 371 or 361. These two courses cover equivalent topics and differ only in the number of credits - feel free to take the one that better fits your schedule or the one with whom the teaching style is a better fit, as either will serve as a prerequisite for unlocking upper level genetics courses.
    • Subsequent to taking the above, there are a lot of upper level genetics courses listed in the course catalog, but some have not been offered in many years, so it's important to cross reference your schedule planning with the actual time schedules. Highlights currently being offered include:
      • GENOME 465 Advanced Human Genetics
      • GENOME 373 Genomic informatics
      • GENOME 466 Cancer Genetics
      • GENOME 475 Debates in Genetics
  • Biological Anthropology offers a lot of relevant coursework, like  BIO A 372 Uses and Abuses of Evolutionary Views of Human Behavior, BIO A 382 Human Population Biology, but also a lot of other human evolution, disease and ELSI-relevant courses.
  • Microbiology is broadly relevant to people who are interested in the infectious disease components of public health genetics. The department specifically offers MICROM 411 Bacterial Genetics.
  • Bioengineering offers courses in synthetic biology (BIOEN 423-425) that include genetics and lab techniques.
  • Some specialized interest items exist in other departments:
    • Immunology offers IMMUN 411 Introduction to Immunology which includes some genetic content.
    • Pharmacology offers PHCOL 401-2 General Pharmacology I-II.
  • Courses that cover ELSI issues related to genetics and eugenics are offered by: