Biological Sciences Division

UC Berkeley’s Division of Biological Sciences generates profound shifts in our understanding of the function and behavior of living organisms. New insights — many discovered in our laboratories — fuel the widely accepted belief that the life sciences form the defining research enterprise of the 21st century. With about 112 full-time faculty in two departments, our undergraduates and graduate students learn from and work with some of the world’s leading scientific minds, deciphering the interplay of living systems from the intracellular to the ecosystemic to the planetary.

Programs in Biological Sciences

To learn more about various biological programs and research projects in L&S, visit the links below.

Integrative Biology (IB) emphasizes organismal, ecological and evolutionary biology with a broad comparative approach, including both plants and animals. Faculty members are also associated with three major research museums (Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Museum of Paleontology and Herbaria), and several field research stations facilitate studies of behavior and marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecology. Students have access to all of these outstanding research facilities and collections.

Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB) focuses on lower levels of organization with the divisions of genetics, genomics and development; neurobiology; cell and developmental biology; biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology; and immunology and pathogenesis. Faculty members are also affiliated with independent research centers in neuroscience, cancer research, genomics, and aging. 

Neuroscience (Neuro) adopts an interdisciplinary approach to study how brains generate cognition and behavior.  Faculty members study how the brain works at the molecular, biochemical, and cellular levels; how it processes information; and how it generates sensation, action, emotion, and high-level cognition. Our faculty also study the nature of neural computation, the causes of neurological and neuropsychiatric disease, and develop neurotechnologies.

Visit Division Website