KAYLEE HEARTMAN / DAILY NEXUS
Embracing the dynamic landscape of biology, UC Santa Barbara introduces a new major, molecular and cellular biology (MCB), offering students the flexibility to forge their own learning path. As the expectations and desires of the biology field shift rapidly, this new major — to be offered this upcoming fall for students with completed pre-biology requirements — will prepare students for their future academic or professional goals.
At UCSB, admitted students enter the College of Letters & Science as pre-biology majors, where their first two years are spent following a curriculum that is relatively predefined. Heavy emphasis is placed on introductory biology, organic chemistry, physics, calculus and more. Once the pre-biology requirements have been satisfied, students are able to declare a specialized biology major.
These specialized majors span across two departments which molecular, cellular, and developmental biology (MCDB) professor Mike Wilton describes as “skin-in vs. skin-out”: internal mechanisms and processes within organisms versus external aspects and interactions of organisms with their environment. The skin-in biology majors come from MCDB while the skin-out biology majors come from ecology, evolution, and marine biology (EEMB). Both departments share the general biology major (B.A. and B.S. both offered), which has the largest enrollment. The MCDB department’s four specialized majors include pharmacology, microbiology, cell and developmental biology, and biochemistry and molecular biology.
So, where does the new MCB major fit in? Wilton explains that the department “decided to create a major that provided flexibility to the students that were interested in the molecular kind of the ‘skin-in’ side of things.” MCB is described as “collapsing those four majors into one.” Once a student has completed their pre-biology requirements, they can declare the MCB major and have the option to to emphasize in one of the four specialized majors. Students will graduate with an MCB degree and their chosen emphasis stated on their transcript, however, achieving an emphasis is optional. According to Wilton, the benefit of this is that students can choose courses they find interesting rather than “the general biology degree that would encompass parts of ecology, evolution and marine biology.”
The current course structures of the four specialized MCDB majors are extremely rigid, with virtually little to no room to take courses outside of the specialized major. Andrew Kröes, an undergraduate advisor in the MCDB department, states that the new MCB track would change that. Wilton and Kröes hope that eventually students will be able to design their own focus when selecting upper division electives, “whether that be in neurobiology, genetics or computational biology.” As for the students who still want to pursue a specialized MCDB major, that opportunity will also be available.
The MCDB department takes pride in its number of research opportunities with hundreds of students doing research, independent studies or working with faculty. Kröes says that students working with professors or doing independent research will be able to earn credit for their upper division lab requirements. This encourages students to work hands-on as well as find research and innovation that interests them. The biology field and higher academic programs look for students authentically interested in their work, and this major aims to help foster those specific interests.
The MCB major takes inspiration from the specialties and expertise of the MCDB department as well as other UCs and universities. The ultimate goal: to provide flexibility for students to pursue their interests in a rapidly changing field. Kröes states that as new faculty and their specializations enter, this degree will allow for future growth in these areas.
“By having these opportunities and these flexibilities, students are going to find things that suit them, and to pick and choose courses that they will find fulfilling,” Wilton said. “It will allow them to authentically pursue their interests because that’s where [one] excel[s].”
In an era where scientific discovery and technological advancement are accelerating at an unprecedented pace, this new major stands as a testament to UCSB’s goals of providing a forward-thinking, adaptable education.
