Biochemical Engineering Minor in Chemical Engineering

Date:      2/10/2003

To:      Faculty Senate Executive Committee

Cc:      Mark Barteau, Chair, Chemical Engineering

From:      Anne Skaja Robinson & Norman J. Wagner

RE:      Biochemical Engineering Minor, Clarification

Questions have arisen as to the requirements for 600 level courses in the proposed minor in Biochemical Engineering.  In brief, it is common practice for our undergraduates in many of the engineering and science disciplines to take 600 level courses in order to gain knowledge and skills in a technical specialty or sub-discipline.  It is, as shown below, common for undergraduates in our department as well as others at the University to routinely take 600 level courses as “capstone” courses in areas of technical specialization, as technical specialization often necessarily contains graduate research related content.  These courses are also valuable to graduate students who have not had the opportunity to avail themselves of this technical specialization in their prior education. 

 

Current technical requirements for a “biochemical engineering minor” in industrial and academic practice requires research-related material that is currently taught to target classes composed of seniors and graduate students. It is anticipated that, as this rapidly evolving discipline becomes more mature, some of these courses may evolve into the regular undergraduate course offerings and be suitably renumbered.  However, as the faculty of Chemical Engineering in association with our colleagues in Biochemistry and other, allied engineering disciplines have defined the technical content required to award a minor in this technical specialty, we find that this content is contained in the courses as given in the minor proposal (recounted below).  There is significant precedent in the current practice at the University, as listed in this document.  In the following we also demonstrate that the 600 level courses required and listed as electives are popularly subscribed by seniors at the University of Delaware, and that the requirements of this minor and their prerequisites are readily achievable by a wide range of majors at the University.

 

To clarify the course requirements and prerequisites for our proposed minor in biochemical engineering, the following information is provided as evidence:

 

1)      List of prerequisites for the minor

2)      List of majors who could readily take the minor

3)      Undergraduate enrollment in the 600-level courses that are part of the minor.

4)      Listing of majors that require 600-level capstone courses


SUMMARY OF PROPOSED MINOR  (6 courses, 4 required, 2 electives):

For a Minor in Biochemical Engineering the student must take the following four courses:

 

·         BISC207            Introductory Biology I (coreq CHEM101, CHEM103, CHEM105 or CHEM111)

·         BISC401            Molecular Biology of the Cell (BISC207 and one semester of organic chemistry)

·         CHEM527            Introduction to Biochemistry (CHEM331 or CHEM321 Organic Chem)

·         CHEG620            Biochemical Engineering (MATH242 and CHEM527)

 

AND the students must take any TWO of the following courses:

 

·         CHEG650            Biomedical Engineering (prereq CHEG332 and CHEG342)

·         CHEG621            Metabolic Engineering

·         CHEM645            Protein Structure and Function (prereq CHEM527 or CHEM641)

·         CHEM649            Molecular Biophysics (prereq CHEM527 or CHEM641)

·         CHEM646            DNA-Protein Interactions (prereq CHEM527 or CHEM641)

·         CHEM644            Mechanisms of Enzyme Catalysis (prereq CHEM527 or CHEM641)

·         CHEM648            Membrane Biochemistry (prereq CHEM527 or CHEM 641)

·         MEEG684            Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (no prereq)

 

 

1. The prerequisites required for the required courses for this minor are:

·         1 year of chemistry

·         1 semester of organic chemistry

·         Calculus (MATH242)

 

2. The following majors would be able to pursue the minor with at most one additional course (that would count toward their technical electives), and are thus, likely candidates for the minor:

·         Animal Science, with an additional semester of calculus

·         Biology BS degrees, with an additional semester of calculus.

·         Chemistry

·         Biochemistry

·         Chemical Engineering

·         Environmental Engineering, with one semester of organic chemistry

·         Physics, with one semester of organic chemistry

 

We note that, in addition, these prerequisites are all standard requirements for admission to medical schools (for example see http://www.udel.edu/Biology/premed/coursework.html).  Consequently, students pursuing a preparatory degree for advanced study in medical school would have the necessary prerequisites for the proposed biochemical engineering minor.  


 

3. Undergraduate Enrollment in the 600-level courses:

 

In the Department of Chemical Engineering, 600 level courses are considered “capstone” courses in specialized sub-fields of the discipline and are designed for both seniors and graduate students.  They are designed to introduce students to advanced areas of the discipline and allied disciplines and as such, have varying prerequisites.    

 

The practice in our department is to aggressively offer these “capstone” 600-level courses in sub-fields of our discipline to our undergraduates. For example, enrollments for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering 600-levels were:

 

600-level undergraduate enrollments:

CHEM 641 – 63 students in Fall 2002

CHEM 642 – 40 students in Spring 2002

CHEM 627 – 7 students in Fall 02                   

CHEM 633 – 28 students in Fall 02

CHEM 625 – 3 students in Spring 02

CHEM 667 – 19 students in Spring 02

 

CHEG 602            Polymer Proc Analysis & Des      12 students in Spring 02

CHEG 615            Special Topics in Mixing              32 students in Spring 02

CHEG 667            Metabolic Eng                           11 students in Spring 02

CHEG 600            Intro Polymer Sci & Eng                  42 students in Fall 02

CHEG 617            Colloid Sci & Eng                     12 students in Fall 02

CHEG 620            Biochemical Eng                      13 students in Fall 02

 


4). Several undergraduate majors & concentrations have requirements for 600-level courses[1] because they are viewed as capstone courses for a concentration or subset of the major. This is the basis for including them in our proposed biochemical engineering minor:

 

a) For a bachelor’s degree (BS) in Biochemistry, the following 600-level courses are required:

CHEM 641/642 Biochemistry

CHEM 643

One 600-level elective in Chemistry

 

b) Among many other requirements, those for a B.S. Degree in Biological Sciences with a Concentration: Biotechnology (BBT) includes the following:

 

Upper division requirements

Choose two courses from the following list:

(At least one must be a BISC course)

1.          BISC 602 Molecular Biology of Animal Cells             

2.          BISC 648 Bioremediation             

3.          BISC 654 Biochemical Genetics             

4.          BISC 679 Virology             

5.          BISC 656 Evolutionary Genetics             

6.          BISC 615 Vertebrate Developmental Biology  

7.          BISC 665 Eukaryotic Molecular Biology and Genetics             

8.          BISC 673 Advances in Immunology             

9.          BISC 693 Human Genetics             

10.        CHEM 648 Membrane Biochemistry             

11.                            ANSC 670 Principles of Molecular Genetics

 

Laboratory classes

Choose three: Two from category 1, one from category 2

1.            Macromolecules (Prerequisite BISC 401)

BISC 604 Nucleic Acids Laboratory            4

BISC 619 Gene Expression Laboratory            4

BISC 601 Immunochemistry Laboratory            4

 

2.          Cell Systems

BISC 617 Lab Techniques in Electron Microscopy            3

BISC 618 Computer Imaging in Biology 3

ANSC 644 Bioinformatics

 

c) Among other requirements, a B.S. Degree in Biological Sciences with a Concentration: Cell & Molecular Biology and Genetics (CMG) requires

 

Electives

Electives from the following lists to total 43 credit hour in the major. Note that many courses have prerequisites. Courses must be taken from a minimum of two of the groups and have approval of the faculty research advisor. One of the elective courses must be from the list of approved 600 level courses based on the primary literature.

 

A. Genetics          Credit Hours

1.          BISC 491 Human Molecular Cytogenetics            3

2.          BISC 654 Biochemical Genetics            3

3.          BISC 656 Evolutionary Genetics            3

4.          BISC 658 Developmental Genetics            3

5.          BISC 693 Human Genetics            3

 

B. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry          Credit Hours

1.          BISC 602 Molecular Biology of Animal Cells            3

2.          BISC 679 Virology            3

3.          CHEM 642 Biochemistry            3

 

C. Cell Biology          Credit Hours

1.          BISC 471 Immunology            3

2.          BISC 408 Histology            4

OR        

BISC 617 Electron Microscopy            3

3.          BISC 612 Advanced Cell Biology            3

 

D. Physiology          Credit Hours

1.          BISC 605-606 Advanced Mammalian Physiology            8

2.          BISC 626-627 Neuroscience I and II   7

3.          BISC 660 Environmental Physiology            3

4.          BISC 675 Cardiopulmonary Physiology            3

 

E. Bioinformatics          Credit Hours

1.          ANSC 644 Bioinformatics            3

2.          BISC 618 Computer Imaging in Biology 3

3.          A Computer Science course beyond the introductory level      3

 

d) Among other requirements, a B.S. Degree in Biological Sciences with a Concentration: Ecology and Organismic Biology (EOB) requires

 

Electives

Electives from the following lists to total 43 credit hour in the major. Note that many courses have prerequisites. Courses must be taken from a minimum of two of the groups and have approval of the faculty research advisor. One of the elective courses must be from the list of approved 600 level courses based on the primary literature.

 

A. Ecology          Credit Hours

1.          BISC 480 Vertebrate Natural History            3

2.          BISC 495 Evolution            3

3.          BISC 637 Population Ecology            3

4.          BISC 641 Microbial Ecology            3

5.          BISC 656 Evolutionary Genetics            3

 

B. Organismic Biology          Credit Hours

1.          BISC 300 Introduction to Microbiology            4

2.          BISC 442 Vertebrate Morphology            4

3.          BISC 605-606 Advanced Mammalian Physiology            8

4.          BISC 626-627 Neuroscience I and II   8

5.          BISC 630 Ichthyology            4

6.          BISC 642 Advanced Vertebrate Anatomy            4

7.          BISC 660 Environmental Physiology            3

8.          BISC 661 Biology of Striated Muscle            3

9.          BISC 675 Cardiopulmonary Physiology            3

 



[1] The registrar indicates that: (http://www.udel.edu/registrar/courseinv/instructions.html)

Note 2: Courses numbered 600 to 699 are graduate-level courses also open to qualified advanced undergraduates with the consent of the instructor. There should be a single standard of expectation and grading for all students registered at this level.

Note 3: In those few cases where the number of either undergraduate students or graduate students does not permit adequate offerings of both a 400-level and a 600-level course, a graduate 600-level course may be combined with a separately numbered 400-level undergraduate course in the same section. The graduate component must then be offered with a graduate standard of expectation and grading.

Note 4: The appropriateness of 600-numbered courses for undergraduate credit is subject to review by the Committee on Undergraduate Studies.