Program of Study
The University of Utah operates on the semester system. First-year graduate students begin their studies in August, but may choose to arrive in the summer for an additional research experience. Upon arrival, each student is assisted by a senior graduate student in arranging housing and by a faculty advisor in setting up the first year curriculum and in choosing a first laboratory rotation.
Core Curriculum
First year students take core courses and electives designed to provide a solid background in important areas of molecular biology. Students with deficiencies in their background may be asked to first remedy those deficiencies by taking appropriate courses at the undergraduate level. By the end of their second year, all students in the Molecular Biology Program should have fulfilled the core course requirement (grades of B- or better). The titles and structure of the core courses are below. A list of electives are available before registration.
Journal Clubs
First-year Molecular Biology students also take a journal club (or seminar) and grant writing course. This course is designed to give first-year students practice in reading and analyzing the scientific literature and in presenting formal seminars on selected topics. Each journal club is supervised by one or two faculty, who assist students in choosing seminar topics, in selecting articles, and in organizing their presentations. The instructors also provide feedback and constructive criticism at the end of each presentation. A maximum of ten students may enroll in any particular journal club. Previous journal club topics have included: Vascular Development & Tumor Angiogenesis / Protein Nucleic Acid Complexes in DNA Replication, Repair, and Expression / Nuclear Hormone Receptors / Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration / Fibroblast Growth Factor Signalling & Its Function in Normal Development & Disease / Tumor Angiogenesis / Chromosome Dynamics
Seminar and Special Topics Courses
Program students must also take at least two additional student participation courses, similar to the first-year journal clubs. In these advanced courses, students do literature searches, prepare lectures, make presentations, and lead discussions. A faculty member usually chooses the general topic, provides a few references, and serves as a resource. Examples of recent course topics include: Gene Expression in Prokaryotes / Developmental Biology / Advanced Immunology / Ion Channels / DNA Replication / Gene Amplification / Genetic Imprinting / Animal Virus Replication / Oncogenes and Anti-oncogenes / Protein Targeting / Biology & Biochemistry of Cytokines and their Receptors
Department Seminars
Each of the participating departments has weekly literature and research-in-progress seminars that are considered a vital part of the students’ graduate education. Please review our Bioscience Calendar for information.
Laboratory Rotations
Students in the Molecular Biology Program complete four laboratory rotations with different faculty members during their first year. In addition to helping students choose a thesis mentor, lab rotations expose students to areas of research they might not otherwise experience, enable them to develop a network of contacts, and to learn experimental techniques that may prove helpful in their subsequent thesis research. To assist students in choosing lab rotations, Program faculty present short talks about their research programs during the fall. These talks inform students about the diversity of possible thesis topics and the variety of experimental approaches employed in different labs.
Choosing a Mentor
Students choose thesis advisors at the end of Spring semester. These arrangements are made by mutual agreement between mentor and student, and automatically admit the student to the degree program of the advisor's department. All faculty members in the Program try to arrange space in their labs so that they are able to accept a thesis student from each class. However, to maintain low student/faculty ratios, faculty are generally urged not to take on more than one student from each year's class.
Financial Support
All Ph.D. students in Molecular Biology are awarded financial support (living fellowship, tuition waiver and health insurance) for the duration of their thesis work, provided their progress is satisfactory. First year students are supported by the Molecular Biology Program. (The fellowship amount is $25,000 for the 2007-08 academic year.) After their first year, students are supported from individual departmental sources, by graduate training grants, or by research or teaching assistantships. Fellowship levels, regardless of the source of support, are the same in all of the participating departments.
Teaching Experience
Students in the Molecular Biology Program are required to obtain at least one semesters of teaching experience in their second or later years. Teaching stints typically involve conducting discussion sections for undergraduate lecture courses or supervising students in laboratory courses. There is no teaching obligation in the first year to enable students to concentrate on laboratory rotations and core courses.
Advanced Lecture Courses
Students in the Molecular Biology Program are required to take a half semester advanced elective during their first year and at least one and a half advanced courses after their first year of study. A large number of such courses that can meet this requirement are offered annually or in alternate years. Course offerings are quite varied to meet the diverse interests of Program students.
Admission to Candidacy
Students are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree after completing course, seminar, and teaching requirements, and passing a "preliminary" or "qualifying" exam. This exam is normally taken at the end of the second year of graduate school and is administered either by the students' thesis committee or by a departmental examining committee. The exam format usually entails written research proposals in areas outside that of the proposed thesis research and a subsequent oral defense of the proposals.