Disparities in Undergraduate Genome Biology Course Offerings in the United States

Bioinformatics courses are widely available at US institutions of higher learning. These courses meet the high demand for experiential learning and provide training in relevant job skills for biology students. However, courses based on the biology of genomes, the findings of high-throughput approaches and the potential for future discovery have not been studied separately from informatics. Because of the pervasiveness of genomic research in science, medicine, and multiple other fields, the lack of genome biology courses could represent a significant barrier to the future success of the nation’s biology majors. We therefore performed an audit of genome biology courses provided at 297 US colleges and universities offering at least one bachelor’s degree in biology. Four researchers independently searched course catalogs and department websites of each institution for descriptions of courses focused on genome biology. The results showed that there are significant disparities in genome biology course offerings across the US. Specifically, highly funded institutions are most likely to offer such courses, whereas less-funded, minority-serving, and historically black institutions offer far fewer such opportunities.