Biology for the Non-Biologist

When Abbie Stringer began her new course in Northwestern Engineering's Master of Biotechnology Program (MBP), she asked students not to focus on asking what or how. 

Instead, her goal for them was to focus on why. 

Why does a cell behave the way it does? Why does a technology work or fail? Why does foundational biology matter long after an exam is over?  

This emphasis on the underlying logic — not memorized fact — was the foundation behind Molecular and Cell Biology for Translational Biotechnology, a new course Stringer taught this fall. Rather than the official name, Stringer liked to think of the class as biology for the non-biologist.

For MBP students, many of whom arrive with engineering backgrounds and little formal biology training, the introduction can be incredibly important. 

“Traditional biologists often want to just understand what and how, but I really like to understand the why,” said Stringer, who has been working in Northwestern's chemical and biological engineering department as an adjunct lecturer for the past decade. “If we want to use biology and apply it for a specific purpose or part of a technology, we need to understand the foundational ideas and principles that underlie that technology.” 

That meant her course was lighter on memorization and heavier on deep thinking. The purpose was to encourage students to ask questions — the right questions — so they could then pursue the right answers.  

The course was split into two halves. The first investigated special topics within cell and molecular biology. The second explored different technologies to understand how foundational biology led to their development. 

“It’s really thinking of it as a true applied science,” Stringer said. “It’s that ability to contextualize things and piece multiple ideas together — to make the connections between what goes on in the cell and what is going on inside the bioreactor.”  

This forced students to break down walls between individual topics they might know about and instead study how each is interconnected.  

For their final project, students identified a biotech startup and investigated the foundational biology at the heart of its technology. They then wrote a final paper and delivered a 20-minute presentation, followed by a question-and-answer session.  

The goal was for students to take what they learned in textbooks and apply it to real business and biotechnology cases. 

“Students were able to see how understanding how things work in the cell can enable them to understand how something isn’t just a technological barrier,” she said. “Rather, they can see when something is a barrier that comes from the inherent biology in the process.”  

Stringer developed her own understanding of biology at Northwestern, where she earned her PhD in chemical and biological engineering in 2012. Since then, she realized her true passion is the classroom, and because of that, she treats her courses as a lab where she learns alongside her students.  

That approach led her to experiment with a different format for the midterm and final with this new course. The first part of the exams were closed-book, while the second part gave students the same questions but now with access to their textbook and the internet.  

“In the closed-book part, they wrote their outline of answers, and I got to see some of their thought processes,” she said. “Then, when they opened the book, they could fill in some details or correct some misconceptions. In this technological era, we often ask the question to the internet first and don’t try to answer it for ourselves. We need to have context for the answer the internet gives us.”  

This was Stringer's first time teaching in MBP. She came away impressed by the caliber of the MBP students — and with ideas to help strengthen the course the next time she teaches it.  

“Kind of like the first pancake, there were parts of it that I think worked really well and parts of it that I learned a lot about,” she said. “Overall, it was successful, and it will only keep getting better.”