Capstone Items

Students must complete one approved capstone course within the biology components. The capstone requirement can be fulfilled by Regenerative Biology (CELL 3400), Principles of Immunology (CELL 4250), Principles of Biomedical Writing (CELL 4260), Advanced Molecular Biology (CELL 4440), Genome Biology (CELL 4450), Molecular Biology of Cancer (CELL 4710), Independent Studies (CELL 4910/4920), or Honors Thesis (CELL 4990/5000).

Independent Study projects must be laboratory research projects that are taken for 3 hours credit.  The student must register for a Capstone Component (CELL 5110) and complete additional requirements.  Registration for Capstone Components (CELL 5110) is by departmental approval.

The requirements to add the CELL 5110 Capstone to any Independent Study (CELL 4910 or CELL 4920) are the following:

• The student learns how to read the scientific literature under faculty supervision.
• The student presents a project before the end of the semester.
• The format of the project can be a written paper, a poster defense, or an oral presentation.
• The project must include the rationale for the project, the materials and methods, the experimental results, and an interpretation of those data.
• The project is in a forum open for assessment by other members of the CMB faculty. These third-party assessments do not count towards the student’s grade for the independent study.