Co-requisite: BIOL 791. Since the BIOL 790A course should normally be taken instead, approvals of academic and dissertation advisors are required for registration. Experimental and/or theoretical investigation of a relevant topic in biology. For PhD students who have successfully defended their dissertation proposal. Students enrolled in the PhD program before 2015 Fall must accumulate a minimum number of credits in Doctoral Dissertation Research and Pre-Doctoral Research (see graduate catalog for program-specific details; the same requirement may apply to joint programs with other universities).