Biochemistry, Research Track

 
Biochemistry is the chemistry of living things. It deals with the compounds (organic and inorganic) that make up living matter and the pathways through which they act in biological life processes. Biochemistry is an essential background to medicine, Much of the progress in our understanding of and ability to treat human physical ailments can be traced to the contributions of the biochemist. They are in the vanguard of those proving the very basis of life in the generic materials known as RNA and DNA. Biochemists are in the forefront of those seeking the cause and cure of such scourges as heart disease, multiple sclerosis and cancer. They are also attempting to increase the resistance of living things to the attack of other organisms. Additionally, clinical biochemists devise the tests that are used for diagnostic purposes in hospitals and clinical labs. Forensic biochemists aid medical examiners in the detection and prosecution of criminal offenses. The biochemistry program at the University of Scranton, unlike those at many other schools, is administered by the Chemistry Department and is much more chemically, than biologically, oriented. Great stress is placed on undergraduate research done by individual students, under the direction of a professor and leading to a thesis which must be defended before the department. The first two years of the biochemistry program parallels the medical technology curriculum, providing students the option of easily changing from one major to the other.

The following is the grid for the Biochemistry, Research Track major at the University of Scranton. It is only what is recommended for when the student takes certain courses but is not the final decision for the course work, especially if the student advances out of General and Analytical Chemistry I by the exemption test given during the Summer Pre-Orientation. For ACS accreditation, the student must also take Analysis II (MATH 221), Analysis III (MATH 222), Differential Equations (MATH 341) and Elements of Physics (PHYS 140-141) instead of General Physics, and Advanced Inorganic Chemistry with lab (CHEM 440-440L).

Freshman Year: