Why Iowa?

Our students aren’t passive learners. At Iowa, you’ll go inside the lab and contribute to world-renowned research working alongside faculty experts to explore the diverse realms of the biological sciences.

Undergraduate programs

iBio Graduate Program

Faculty

Why study here?

Whether you aspire to be a research scientist, professor, physician, forensic scientist, biotechnologist, public health professional, natural resource expert, science communicator, or so much more — Iowa’s Department of Biology will prepare you to take your next step through courses, experiential learning, and engagement in research.

Research

Bin Z. He portrait

Stresses strengthen disease-causing yeast

Biologists at the University of Iowa have found that C. glabrata, after being exposed to a mild stress, becomes more resistant to hydrogen peroxide, a chemical weapon employed by the human immune system to eliminate infecting microbes. The biologists further learned that this exposure-to-resistance escalation in C. glabrata does not appear in its close relative, the benign Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as brewer’s or baker’s yeast.

Portrait of John Manak

Biologists show how brain’s immune system response worsens epilepsy

In a new study, the researchers lay out a chain of events that can cause seizures—the most common manifestation of epilepsy—to worsen. The sequence begins when oxidative stress in the body causes the brain’s immune system to react. That activation by the brain’s resident immune cells (called glia) triggers more severe seizures.

Brian Berger working in a lab

Iowa antibody bank stands ready to fight the next pandemic

On the corner of Dubuque Street and Iowa Avenue, just a block east from the Old Capitol, thousands of possible clues toward deciphering human diseases are stored in liquid nitrogen. Floating in glass tubes, the hybridomas—cell lines used to create antibodies, the foundational pieces of human and animal immunity—hold clues to how our brains work and our muscles develop. They point the way to treatments for emerging viruses that have yet to be named. They could even help combat a future pandemic.

News and announcements

Castellano named 2025 Goldwater Scholar

Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Third-year student Seren Castellano, double major in biology and anthropology and a minor in ancient civilizations, was named a 2025 Goldwater Scholar, the nation’s most prestigious scholarship for undergraduate students pursuing careers in research.

Summer Internship Opportunity for Students

Friday, March 28, 2025
There is short and paid internship opportunity for students interested in communicating science to K-12 students this summer!

4 UI faculty elected to latest class of AAAS fellows

Friday, March 28, 2025
Four University of Iowa faculty members have been named 2024 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general-scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.
biology students on site

$6M

Faculty in the Department of Biology received more than $6 million in grant funding in 2023.

students walking down hallway in Biology building

55 %

of undergraduate students participated in research outside of regular course assignments.

(2017 data)

student at a microscope

1,040

More than 1,000 students are enrolled as biology undergraduate majors at Iowa.

Events

The Swine Republic: A reading by Chris Jones at Prairie Lights Bookstore promotional image

The Swine Republic: A reading by Chris Jones at Prairie Lights Bookstore

Thursday, April 3, 2025 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Books
Come to Prairie Lights Books for a special Darwin Day reading by Chris Jones, author of The Swine Republic. Published in 2023 by local publisher Ice Cube Press and named a 2024 "Great Reads from Great Places" book by the Library of Congress, The Swine Republic provides extensive research and reportage on the truth behind Iowa's infamously poor water quality, which you "...won't get ... from Iowa’s agricultural and political leaders." (icecubepress.com) Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature...
Iowa: Land of Troubled Water, a talk by Chris Jones promotional image

Iowa: Land of Troubled Water, a talk by Chris Jones

Friday, April 4, 2025 3:30pm
Biology Building East
Chris Jones is author of The Swine Republic which was named a 2024 "Great Reads from Great Places" book by the Library of Congress. The book explores Iowa's infamously poor water quality through an analysis of research and reportage. Until recently, Jones was a research engineer with IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering at the University of Iowa. He holds a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Montana State University and a BA in chemistry and biology from Simpson College. Previous career stops include...
Bring the Noise: Estrogen Sensitivity in Frogs. Tyrone B. Hayes promotional image

Bring the Noise: Estrogen Sensitivity in Frogs. Tyrone B. Hayes

Friday, April 4, 2025 4:30pm
Biology Building East
Tyrone Hayes is the Judy Chandler Webb Distinguished Chair for Innovative Teaching and Research and a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on the role of steroid hormones in amphibian development and he conducts both laboratory and field studies in the U.S. and Africa. The two main areas of interest are metamorphosis and sex differentiation, but he is also interested in growth (larval and adult) and hormonal regulation of aggressive behavior...
Art & Write Night promotional image

Art & Write Night

Friday, April 4, 2025 6:00pm to 8:00pm
University of Iowa Museum of Natural History
Join the long, rich, historical tradition of artists creating in our spaces. Professional, aspiring, and amateur artists alike, make our museum your muse. The return of this popular program series welcomes guests into the Museum of Natural History's magical gallery spaces after-hours to work on sketching or writing projects with other campus and community artists. Tell a friend, grab a notebook, and join us on the first Friday of each month. We'll provide a new inspo prompt for each session...
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Seminars

The influence of environmental stress, reproductive mode, and ploidy variation on life-history trait expression of an invasive snail promotional image

The influence of environmental stress, reproductive mode, and ploidy variation on life-history trait expression of an invasive snail

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 8:00am
Virtual
Briante Najev, a PhD candidate in the Integrated Biology (iBio) Graduate Program, will be defending her dissertation on Tuesday, April 8, at 8:00am CDT in Room 158, Van Allen Hall (VAN), and via Zoom: https://uiowa.zoom.us/j/94601487888?pwd=mqI2mMNZlGDQzOyUipLbLKSImQtHE5.1 (Meeting ID: 946 0148 7888; Passcode: bio). Briante’s mentors are Maurine Neiman, Professor of Biology; and Amy Krist, Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology and Physiology at the University of Wyoming. The seminar...

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Workshop: Nathan Mohar, Wallrath Lab

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 12:30pm to 1:20pm
Medical Education Research Facility
Nathan Mohar, Wallrath Laboratory PhD Candidate, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics

Department of Microbiology and Immunology Seminar Series - Priya Issuree, PhD

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 3:00pm to 4:00pm
Bowen Science Building