Biotechnology for Sustainability

Catalog description

The biotech revolution is underway, with uncertain implications for widespread genetic modification of humans and other lifeforms. While biomedical biotech faces key scientific and ethical crossroads, applications to non-human systems offer critical solutions for food, water, and energy amid population growth and hydrologic change. This course explores biotechnology in the sustainability space, examining technical, economic, and policy challenges. Topics include diagnostic biotech, biofuels and biorefineries, bioremediation, biomining, synthetic biology, systems biology and AI, climate biotech, sustainable agriculture, and exoplanet colonization. Students should have a basic understanding of cellular biology and genetics and will explore molecular techniques (DNA, RNA, proteins) used in these fields. A group project enables deeper engagement with both wet lab and computational tools, alongside consideration of the ethics of genetic engineering.