The Department of Cell and Molecular Biology offers a Doctor of Philosophy degree. The active research opportunities in the department are mostly concentrated in two fields, developmental biology and neuroscience.
Over the course of their first two years, students will take classes aligned with their backgrounds and interests, attend seminars, and serve as teaching assistants. In their first year of the doctoral program specifically, students are expected to rotate through labs within the department and join a lab in which they will continue their dissertation research. Typically, students complete a prospectus in the third year and complete a dissertation in the fifth year.
Students will complete 48 credit hours of course work with at least a 3.0 GPA (FIRM). Credit hours should be complete by the end of second year (4th semester).
Core required courses include: Cell Biology CELL 6750, CMB Doctoral Seminar CELL 7870, Advanced Molecular Biology (CELL 6440), and a journal club course (NSCI 6040 or CELL 6840).
| Course ID | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CELL 6000 | Biomedical Ethics | 3 |
| CELL 6010/4010 | Cellular Biochemistry | 3 |
| CELL 6030/3030 | Molecular Biology | 3 |
| CELL 6035/3035 | Molecular Biology Lab | 1 |
| NSCI 6040 | Trends In Neuroscience | 1 |
| CELL 6050/3050 | Foundations of Pharmacology | 3 |
| CELL 6070 | Neurobiology of Aging | 3 |
| CELL 6080 | Adv Dev & Cell Biol II | 3 |
| CELL 6110/4110 | Human Histology | 4 |
| CELL 6130/4130 | Embryology | 3 |
| CELL 6160/4160 | Developmental Biology | 3 |
| CELL 6180 | Biomedical Research in Animals | 3 |
| CELL 6200/4200 | General Endocrinology | 3 |
| CELL 6210/3210 | Physiology | 3 |
| CELL 6220/4220 | Microbiology | 3 |
| CELL 6225/4225 | Microbiology lab | 1 |
| CELL 6230 | Virology | 3 |
| CELL 6310/3310 | Cellular Neuroscience | 3 |
| CELL 6320/3320 | Systems Neuroscience | 3 |
| CELL 6340/4340 | Neurobiology of Disease | 3 |
| CELL 6350/4350 | Developmental Neurobiol | 3 |
| CELL 6370/4370 | Molecular Neurobiology | 3 |
| CELL 6400/3400 | Regenerative Biology | 3 |
| CELL 6440/4440 | Adv Molecular Biology | 3 |
| CELL 6550 | Syn Org of the Brain | 3 |
| CELL 6710/4710 | Molec Biology of Cancer | 3 |
| CELL 6750/3750 | Cell Biology | 3 |
| CELL 6755/3755 | Cell Biology Lab | 1 |
| CELL 6840 | Current Topics Dev Biol | 2 |
| CELL 7110 | Research Rotations | 3 |
| CELL 7120 | Research Rotations | 3 |
| CELL 7130 | Research | 2-10 |
| CELL 7260 | Graduate Communications | 3 |
| CELL 7450/6450/4450 | Genome Biology | 3 |
| CELL 7870 | Doctoral Seminar | 1 |
| CELL 9990 | Dissertation Research | 3 |