BIOL 314: Laboratory in Embryology and Histology

Course Description

The aim of this course is to provide students with the skills and knowledge required to accurately identify the primary tissues in the animal body and understand how they arise in the developing embryo. This course will familiarize students with microscopy, experimental techniques in developmental biology, and identification of diagnostic characteristics in a histological context. Students will learn pattern recognition in normal tissues and organ structure (histology) as well as comparison to disease state (histopathology). To complement these exercises, a strong emphasis will also be placed on the correlation between tissue architecture and normal physiological function of organs and tissues during developing and adult animals in order to provide context to the observations. The course will cover diverse topics ranging from how chromosomes behave during cell replication to the evolutionary homology and structure of the wing and the arm in a bird, a human and a bat. To succeed in this course, students will be expected to commit to memory the diagnostic characteristics required to identify tissue types and the embryonic stage when they develop. However, this course will not simply rely on rote memorization, as students will be expected to apply their knowledge in practice-based, hands on experiments on vertebrate and invertebrate embryos. This course will meet for 4 hours per week (1hr lecture + 3hr lab) (F, W).