Jonee Grant
Cell Biology
April 17, 2026
End‑of‑Term Reflection
I’ve learned many things from this course, but what I am most proud of is how the material has interacted naturally with my other three courses genetics, pre‑calculus, and art history helping me creating meaningful connections in those subjects.
This course helped me realize just how delicate and precise the cell’s systems of checks and balances are, and how processes as “simple” as ion transport, cell‑signaling pathways, and apoptosis support nearly every major biological function. These systems became much clearer when paired with reading scientific articles demonstrating how catastrophic the consequences can be when these pathways fall out of balance. This connected directly to my genetics course, where I learned about base‑substitution mutations and how even a single altered amino acid can change a protein’s structure such as the missense mutation that causes sickle‑cell anemia. The connections didn’t stop there. In pre‑calculus, I could see how ion movement changes membrane potential in predictable, graphable patterns, showing how biological processes can be modeled mathematically.
Understanding the physiology behind movement added depth to how artists depict the human body; glycine, a major inhibitory neurotransmitter helps regulate motor control and prevent excessive muscle activation and an invisible process behind every life like sculpture such as Michelangelo’s Bacchus. Even artists like Van Gogh, whose neurological and psychiatric struggles may have involved disrupted neurotransmitter signaling, illustrate how deeply biology and art can intertwine.
When these connections diffuse across disciplines the material truly sinks in as a result, strengthening my understanding of both the human body and the world around me.