The Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology (GDCB) focuses primarily on biological function at the cellular and subcellular level, using molecular, genetic, computational and biochemical approaches to understanding biological function. GDCB is dedicated to biological discovery and excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, with research and teaching missions encompassing fundamental cellular and subcellular processes, including genome dynamics, cell structure and function, cellular metabolism, cellular response to environmental and developmental signals, and molecular mechanisms of development.

The governance of the department is primarily by the faculty as a whole. The Department Governance Document includes the Departmental Mission Statement. The department does not have a separate set of by-laws. There are no other departmental governance documents or departmental procedures that are separate from this document.

Faculty, staff and graduate students are housed in Advanced Teaching and Research Building, Bessey Hall, the Molecular Biology Building and the Roy J. Carver Co-Laboratory. The main administrative office for GDCB is located in Room 1210 of the Molecular Biology Building.

Pocket prairie outside Science Hall II. There’s a little patch of prairie right here on campus where plants and animals thrive. (ISU News Service, 2015)

We hope you will explore links on our website to learn more about GDCB, including our academic programs and courses; our faculty and staff and their research areas; our ongoing events and news; our research facilities, and much more including recent GDCB faculty publications.

Iowa State University is among the best land grant universities in the country and in fall 2021, there were 30,708 students enrolled in its undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. Ames, Iowa, is ranked as one of the best places in the nation to live, work and do business, and the Iowa State University campus is regarded as one of the nation’s most beautiful.