A student researcher in a lab coat examines a small sample tube under blue light while standing beside a microscope in a biology lab.

Understand how life works—and where it can take you.

Explore life from molecules to ecosystems—and learn science by doing it. At the University at Buffalo, biological sciences students gain hands-on experience through labs, research and close faculty mentorship from the very start. Whether you’re interested in human health, the environment, genetics or discovery-driven research, you’ll build real scientific skills and explore paths that match your interests. If you’re curious about how life works and want a degree that keeps your options open, biological sciences at UB is a strong place to begin.

Department News

  • Poulin and McCabe receive SUNY Chancellor’s Awards
    6/27/22
    The Department of Biological Sciences is pleased to announce that Dr. Jessica Poulin, Clinical Associate Professor, and, Barbara McCabe, Instructional Supoort Staff, have each received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence. The Chancellor’s Awards acknowledge and provide system-wide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and the ongoing pursuit of excellence. See UB Now story, here.   The awards were presented October 27  during UB's 2022 Celebration of Faculty and Student Excellence.
  • PBS Features Vincent Lynch’s Elephantoid Genome Research
    12/26/25
    The Woolly Mammoth always attracts attention, which is why PBS Digital Studios features the episode, How To Build A Woolly Mammoth (But Should We?) Presented by PBS Eons, host Blake de Pastino is on a "quest to understand how evolution basically built the woolly mammoth, we may have found the blueprints for building them ourselves." The segment cites Vincent Lynch's research on elephantoid genome.
  • Omer Gokcumen featured on WNYC’s “Radiolab”
    12/26/25
    Omer Gokcumen, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was recently featured on WNYC’s Radiolab in a segment titled “Neanderthal’s Revenge.”