BSSB Curriculum AY2021 Intake

B.Sc (Hons) in Biological Sciences with 2nd Major in Biomedical Structural Biology

Curriculum and Course Descriptions AY2021

Academic Unit (AU) requirements for candidates admitted to BSSB programme
Type No of AU
Core 33
Major PE 39
CC 17
FC 15
BDE (Free) 3
BDE (2nd major)-Core 22
BDE (2nd major)- Electives 9
Total 138

LEGEND:  MPE = Major Prescribed Elective  | CC= ICC (Common Core)|FC= ICC (Foundational Core)| BDE= Broadening and Deepening Elective

Year 1
Semester 1
Type Course Code Course Title AU
Core BS1002Biophysical Chemistry 3
Core BS1003 Organic Chemistry 3
Core BS1008 Biostatistics 3
CC CC0003 Ethics & Civics in a Multi-Cultural World 2
CC CC0001 Inquiry and Communication in an Interdisciplinary World 2
CC CC0005 Healthy Living & Wellbeing 3
BDE (Free) Any Any 3
  Total 19

Year 1
Semester 2
Type Course Code Course Title AU
Core BS1005 Biochemistry I 3
Core BS1006Principles of Genetics 3
Core BS1007Molecular and Cell Biology I 3
Core BS1009 Introduction to Computational Thinking 3
Core BS1100 Molecular and Cell Biology Techniques Level 1 3
CC CC0002 Navigating the Digital World 2
BDE (BSSB-Core) CM1041 Basic Physical Chemistry with Laboratory 4
  Total 21

Year 2
Semester 1
Type Course Code Course Title AU
Core BS2001 Physiology 3
Core BS2002 Microbiology 3
Core BS2003 Biochemistry II 3
FC BS0004 Introduction to Data Science 3
CC CC0007 Science & Technology for Humanity 3
Major PE BSxxxx Major PE (Table B) 3
  Total 18

Year 2
Semester 2
Type Course Code Course Title AU
CC ML0004 Career & Entrepreneurial Development for the Future World 2
CC CC0006 Sustainability: Society, Economy & Environment 3
FC HW0218Communication Across the Sciences 2
BDE (BSSB-Core) CM2031 Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry 3
BDE (BSSB-Core) BS2020 Mathematics and Physics Topics for Structural Biologists 3
BDE (BSSB-Core) CM2041 Physical and Biophysical Chemistry I 3
BDE (BSSB-Core) BS2021 RNA Structures & RNA Based Drug Development 3
  Total 19

Year 3
Semester 1
Type Course Code Course Title AU
Major PE BSxxxx Major PE (Table B) 12
BDE (BSSB-Core) BS3021 Bioimaging Techniques in EM 3
BDE (BSSB-Elective)  Elective From Table C 3
  Total 18

Year 3
Semester 2
Type Course Code Course Title AU
FC BS4227 Professional Internship 10
  Total 10

Year 4
Semester 1
Type Course Code Course Title AU
Major PE BSxxxx BS4020 FYP or Major PE (Table B) 12
BDE (BSSB-Elective) BSxxxx From Table C 6
  Total 18

Year 4
Semester 2
Type Course Code Course Title AU
Major PE BSxxxx BS4020 FYP or Major PE (Table A) 12
BDE (BSSB-Core) BS3025 NMR in Structural Biology 3
  Total 15
  Grand Total AU 138

* The above curriculum is based on a 4 year B.Sc. (Hons) in Biological Science programme.

Course Code Course Title Course AUs
BS2004 Molecular & Cell Biology II 3
BS2010 Bioimaging 3
BS2025 One Health (offer next AY22 Sem2) 3
BS2011^ Equations of Life 3
BS3006 Bioentrepreneurship 3
BS3014 Biological foundations of behavior 3
BS3022 Protein Trafficking 3
​​BS3036 Fundamentals of Immunology- concepts and experiments 3​
BS3104 Pathology (病理学) 3
BS3202 Commercialization of Molecular and Cell Biology Techniques 3
BS3332# Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series I) – Methods in Histology3
BS3335# Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series I) – Protein behavior in health and disease – biophysical tools 3
BS3347# Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series I) – Metabolomics and Lipidomics (On hold) 3
BS3351# Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series I) – Plant Taxonomy and Molecular Phylogenetics 3
BS4011 Biology of Social Behavior (On hold)3
BS4018 Biology of Aging and Neurodegeneration 3
BS4019 ​Discovery and Development of Therapeutic Antibodies 3​
BS4205 Good Manufacturing Practice and Sterilisation for Medical Devices 3
BS4030 Advanced Microbial Pathogenesis (On hold)3
AAB20D Ecology 3
ES2303 Introduction to Ecology 3

# Major PE which is conducted during the 1-week term break

“BS2011 Equations of Life” has final examination during term break. The entire course duration is from teaching week 1- week 7. Please check the NTU Learn course site for more information

Course Code Course Title Course AUs
BS1101^^ Basics of TCM (中医基础理论) 6
BS1200 Understanding Singapore Healthcare System 3
BS2023 Regulatory Control of Healthcare Products and Medical Devices 3
BS2024 Evolution in Health and Disease 3
BS2100 Molecular and Cell Biology Techniques Level 2 3
BS2103^^ TCM Diagnostics (中医诊断学) 6
BS2011^ Equations of Life 3
BS3001 Neurobiology 3
BS3003 Developmental biology 3
BS3004 Cancer biology and Therapy 3
BS3018 Plant biology 3
BS3027 Spectroscopic Methods in Biomedical Structural Biology 3
BS3032 Environmental Microbiology 3
BS3037 Virology 3​
BS3038 Intellectual Property Rights Related to BioBusiness 3
BS3202 Commercialization of Molecular and Cell Biology Techniques 3
BS3331# Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series I) – Applied Immunology 3
BS3338# Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series II) – Effect of Anti-mitotic Drugs on Cancer Cells 3
BS3340# Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series I) – Science of aging and life extension in C. elegans 3
BS3342# Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series II) – Role of Actin cytoskeleton regulators in metastasis 3
BS3348# Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series II) – Field Studies in Functional Plant Ecology (On Hold) 3
BS3349# Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series II) – Introduction to R programming 3
BS3350# Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series II) – The Toolbox of Modern Genome Editing 3
BS4002 Current topics in cell biology 3
BS4010 Synthetic Biology 3
BS4015 Plant Biotechnology 3
BS4016 Advanced Virology (On Hold) 3
BS4017 High-Throughput Bioinformatics 3
BS2901++Research Experience 3
BG4215 Biomedical Nanotechnology 3
CH4306​​ Bioanalytical Techniques 3
ES2304 ​Microbes on natural ecosystems​ 3
ES3302 Tropical Ecology 3
ES3307 Experimental Design and Analysis 3

# UAEB Workshop which is conducted during the 1-week term break or before the term starts.

^^ BS1101 and BS2103 are considered as ONE Major PE.

++ Recommended Major PE which is conducted during the inter-semestral break. Completion of BS2901 will allow you to do one less Major PE in any of the future semesters. Registration of BS2901 will be done by the School. It is a pass/fail course.

Choose three  (3) prescribed elective courses
Course CodeCourse Title Course AUs Offering Sem
BS3008 Computer Aided Drug Discovery 3 Sem 2
BS3013 Drug discovery & development, biotechnology 3 Sem 2
BS3027
Light and Biomolecule Behavior in Health and Disease
3 Sem 1
BS3028 Natural Products in Medicinal Chemistry 3 Sem 2
BS3344 Undergraduate Advanced Experimental Biology (UAEB) Workshop (Series II) – Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography 3 Sem 1
BS4014 Molecular Basis of Diseases 3 Sem 1
CM4034 Natural Product Chemistry 3 Sem 1 (not offered)
CM4043 Molecular Modeling: Principle and Applications 3 Sem 1
CM4051 Advanced Bioorganic chemistry 3 Sem 2
(not offered)
CM5031Analytical & Manufacturing Techniques in Pharmaceutical Industry​ 3 Sem 2
CM5081Medicinal Chemistry 3 Sem 1
CM5082Drug Design and Synthesis 3 Sem 2

Note: For BSxxxx courses under Table C, it will be cleared as BDE to fulfil 2nd major in Biomedical Structural Biology first. The BS course could be reclassified to Major PE when all BDE requirements under 2nd major in Biomedical Structural Biology have been fulfilled.

Refer to SPMS course content page for CM course info.

NTU reserves all rights to make changes to the programme structure with prior notice.​​​​​​​​​