Biology
Course overview
MBiol Biology
Typical intake: 4
Biology is an exciting and rapidly developing subject area with great relevance to addressing global challenges from disease and poverty to biodiversity loss and climate change.
The first year is spent studying for the Biology Honours Moderations. This course is divided into three compulsory sections: Cells and Genes; Organisms; and Ecology, together with an introductory course in Quantitative Methods. The first year course offers a grounding in all the most essential areas of Biology. The Finals course is designed to be progressive and, by covering a wide range of subject areas, to allow students to develop their interests in particular areas of Biology. In the second year there are two compulsory courses (Evolution; Quantitative Methods) and six themes (Adaptations to the Environment; Animal Behaviour; Cell and Developmental Biology; Disease; Ecology; Plants and People) of which students take at least 80% of the lectures. There are six practical topics of which students take a minimum of three. In the third year, students choose 6-8 specialist options from a selection of 20-24 options covering the full breadth of active research in the departments. Several courses involve residential field courses in the UK or abroad. All undergraduates complete a research project, either of their own devising or from the very wide range offered each year.
Tutors
Fellow & Tutor in Biology
Dr Ronelle Roth
Dr Ronelle Roth
Fellow & Tutor in Biology
Associate Professor in Cell and Molecular Plant Biology
Royal Society University Research Fellow
Education
BSc (King's College London), DPhil (Oxford)
Ronelle Roth is Fellow & Tutor in Biology at Worcester College. The focus of Ronelle’s group is to obtain a mechanistic understanding of the cross-talk that exist between plants and beneficial arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. Her research is important for sustainable food security as AM symbiosis enhances crop productivity while minimising the reliance on chemical inputs.
During her post-doctoral research at University of Cambridge, Ronelle discovered membrane bound nanoparticles, called extracellular vesicles, accumulate at intracellular plant and fungal symbiotic interfaces. In animals, extracellular vesicles mediate cell-cell communication, yet in plants, their function remains less well understood. Ronelle’s group uses molecular and cell biology approaches to identify cargoes of extracellular vesicles, to understand their biogenesis and spatio-temporal dynamics and to determine the role of extracellular vesicles in modulating the AM symbiosis.
College Lecturer in Biology
Dr Liliana Costa
Dr Liliana Costa
College Lecturer in Biology
Managing Editor of 'Plant and Cell Physiology', Oxford University Press
Education
BSc (Manchester), DPhil (Oxford)
College Lecturer in Biology
Dr Cait Newport
Dr Cait Newport
College Lecturer in Biology
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Department of Biology
Education
BSc (Dalhousie), PhD (Queensland)
I am a research scientist studying the visual behaviour of fish with the hope of learning more about how their brains work. I have earned an undergraduate degree at Dalhousie University in Canada and a PhD at the University of Queensland in Australia. I currently hold a Marie Curie Research fellowship in the Spatial Cognition Group at the University of Oxford.
The theme of my research is to understand how fish use vision to recognize both animate and inanimate objects in their environment.
My current research is focused on determining how fish cope with changes in the appearance of objects during motion. Recognition of 3D objects can be a difficult task as the appearance of some objects can change drastically depending on the angle from which they are viewed. Recognition during motion presents a particularly challenging problem as the appearance of an object is continuously changing. This is a particular issue for animals that use landmarks to navigate. For fish, this problem may be further compounded by the fact that, unlike surface-bound animals, fish can freely move vertically, which could potentially increase the number of approach views to an object. Using behavioural experiments I am exploring what adaptations fish have to ensure landmark recognition is both fast and accurate.
College Lecturer in Biology
Timothy Walker
Timothy Walker FHEA
College Lecturer in Biology
Education
MA, MHort, PGDipLATHE
Timothy Walker was Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden between 1988 and 2014. He has been a stipendiary lecturer at Somerville College since 2014 and at Worcester since 2023.
Timothy teaches plant biology including conservation, evolution, pollination, and sustainability.
- Plants: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2012)
- Plant Conservation: Why It Matters and How It Works (Timber Press, 2014)
- Pollination: The Enduring Relationship between Plant and Pollinator (Princeton University Press, 2020)
Applying
The College admits about 4 undergraduates every year to read Biology. Candidates must have Biology (or Human Biology) to A-level, Advanced Higher, or Higher Level in the IB, or another equivalent. Both pre- and post A-level applications are welcome.
