Major in Microbiology & Immunology

All students must meet the University Requirements.

All students must meet the School Requirements.

Application Process to Declare the Major: The major in Microbiology and Immunology is open to junior- and senior-level students only. Applications to declare the major can be made at any time, but typically in the spring of the sophomore year. Review of applications submitted at that time and selection to the major by the Microbiology and Immunology Faculty Board is completed during the summer. Information can also be found at the UC Irvine Change of Major Criteria website. Double majors within the Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences or with Public Health Sciences, Biomedical Engineering: Premedical, Nursing Science, or Pharmaceutical Sciences are not permitted.

The program is designed to allow students to move between the major and the general Biological Sciences major without penalty. Providing for such movement is necessary because a student will NOT be allowed to major both in Microbiology and Immunology and in Biological Sciences. A student may move into the Microbiology and Immunology major at any time during their third or even fourth years simply by taking Bio 116L as the prerequisite to the other laboratory courses M122L and M127L. These courses will not carry majors only restrictions, leaving the path to the Microbiology and Immunology major open to Biological Sciences majors even as late as the fourth year. However, the requirement to take M121, M122 and M124A means that students should begin taking these courses in the 3rd year if they are considering entering the major. Such late transfer might provide a path into the major for a student who does not meet the eligibility requirement based on their second year Bio and Chem GPA. Such a student could petition for entry based on their performance in the appropriate Bio courses during their third and/or fourth years.

Conversely, since the existing Bio Core beyond Bio 99 requires no set order in which the courses must be taken, and since M116L, M121, M122, M124A and the associated labs should be acceptable satellites for the Bio major, a student can move out of the major and into the Biological Sciences major at any time without penalty.

We encourage Community College and other transfer students to apply for entrance into the Microbiology and Immunology major. Transfer students may not be admitted directly into the Microbiology and Immunology major, but instead will enter UC Irvine as a Biological Sciences major and then change to the Microbiology and Immunology major once they have completed at least six of the required four-unit courses in Biological Sciences (minimum of two required in BioSci), Chemistry, Math and/or Physics (including labs and eligible electives) and earned a GPA of 3.0 or above in those courses. The basic principle is that to be eligible to transfer into this high level major, a student must demonstrate the ability to do B or better work in the field over an extended period of time.

In accordance with this principle, a UC Irvine student transferring from outside of Biological Sciences is also required to transfer initially into the Biological Sciences major. Subsequent eligibility to transfer into the Microbiology and Immunology major will be as described for other Biological Science majors.

¹Required course for all tracks; 
²One of these is required depending on the track
; ³Recommended electives for one or more tracks; 
⁴Alternative electives.

The Microbiology and Immunology major does not diverge from the general Biological Sciences major prior to spring quarter of the second year.

Students interested in Microbiology and Immunology should normally enter UC Irvine as Biological Sciences majors and follow the basic Biological Sciences program during the first two years. Thus, prospective majors should take 94, 96, and freshman seminar (2B) in their first year along with Chemistry 1A-B-C and the associated labs, Chemistry 1LB-LC and the Humanities Core or one of the alternatives approved for the Biological Sciences major.

This should be followed in the second year with Bio 97, 98, 99 and 194S, and the introductory Bio lab, 100LW, together with organic chemistry (Chem 51 A-B-C and associated labs Chem 51LA-LB) and calculus/statistics (Math 2A-B and third quarter Math 2D or Math 7).

It is recommended that students take the Molecular Biology Lab M116L in spring quarter of sophomore year in order to gain further laboratory experience and satisfy the prerequisite for enrolling in M122L or M127L in the third year.

Students in their junior (3rd) year will take one of the laboratory courses M122L or M127L. Note that the lab course M127L is a combination of immunology and virology and used to be offered as separate courses, M121L and M124L. Students should also complete the physics series during the third year.

Students are strongly encouraged to participate in Bio 199 (independent research) throughout the 3rd and 4th years.

The remainder of the 3rd and 4th year curriculum is devoted to completion of the required six upper division elective courses, along with any UC Irvine breadth requirements that remain.

New courses have been designed for advanced students in the Microbiology and Immunology major. These include M119 (Advanced Topics in Immunology) and M124B (Viral Pathogenesis and Immunity). M119 and M124B have M121 as prerequisites and M124B also requires M124A. These courses involve both lectures and discussions of the primary research literature.