Molecular Biology and Genetics Program offers courses mainly on the biological, chemical, physical and mathematical principles governing the structure and functions of organisms at the molecular and cellular levels. Fundamental subjects as molecular and cellular biology, genetics, physiology, microbiology, biochemistry, plant biology, and ecology are supplemented by a wide variety of departmental and interdepartmental elective courses to prepare students for careers in research and teaching in university, and for various positions in biotechnology, food and drug industry, agriculture, forestry, and public health.

Elective Courses

There are two types of elective courses in our program,

  1. Technical Elective (7 courses)

A MINIMUM of 3 of these 7 must be chosen from BIO or GENE programs.

A MAXIMUM of 4 technical electives may be chosen from other science and engineering departments of METU, in addition to BIO or GENE program courses. These include courses offered by the Departments of Mathematics, Statistics, Chemistry, and Physics, as well as by the Faculty of Engineering and the Graduate Schools of Informatics or Marine Sciences.

  2. Nontechnical Elective (2 courses)

These include courses offered by the Art Departments of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (e.g., Psychology or Philosophy) and faculties or graduate schools OTHER THAN Engineering and Informatics.

At the Education Committee meeting held on Monday, February 3, 2025, and the Departmental Academic Board meeting held on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, the following decision was made:

Students may take technical or non-technical elective courses as extra credits that are not located in the curriculum. However, these extra courses will not be included in calculating the cumulative GPA (cGPA). If students wish to replace an extra course with a previously taken course in the same category, they must make this replacement while adding the newly taken course during the course registration week. This decision will be effective for graduations starting from the Spring 2024-2025 semester.

Course Lists and Prerequisites

Please visit the academic catalog for information on courses offered by the BIO and GENE programs of our department. For information on course prerequisites please click here.

The Special Project course (GENE472) is only offered to 4th-year students with CPGA >2.75.