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Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology M.S.

Introduction

Students apply to the master’s degree program through the same portal as for the Ph.D. degree program. While the M.S. is research intensive, master’s students do not do research rotations; they must identify a research adviser prior to the training period. Students are required to participate in laboratory research meetings and departmental seminar series every quarter.

Requirements

Course Requirements

Complete the graduate core course:

BIOL200ACritical Analysis of Scientific Literature

5

BIOL 200A to be completed in the first year

The following course:

BIOL289Practice of Science

5

Enroll in the following seminar series each quarter:

BIOL291Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Seminar

2

BIOL292MCD Seminar

0

Complete two approved advanced electives (list below). The two electives may be completed in either the first or second year

Approved Graduate Electives

(M.S. students complete two)

NOTE: Lecture/lab combinations count as one course. For BME 163 and BME 263, only one of these courses will be counted toward fulfillment of the electives.

BIOL200BAdvanced Molecular Biology

5

BIOL200CAdvanced Cell Biology

5

BIOL200DDevelopmental Biology

5

BIOL201RNA Processing

5

BIOL203Ribosomes and Translation

5

BIOL204Chromatin

5

BIOL205Epigenetics

5

BIOL206Introduction to Stem Cell Biology

5

BIOL206LCurrent Protocols in Stem Cell Biology

5

BIOL215Applied Statistics for Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

5

BIOL208Cellular Signaling Mechanisms

5

BIOL214Advances in Cancer Biology

5

BIOL217Influence of Environment and Experience on Brain Development

5

BIOL226Advanced Molecular Neuroscience

5

BIOL228Developmental Neurobiology

5

BIOL290Career Planning

2

BME110Computational Biology Tools

5

BME130Genomes

5

BME163Applied Visualization and Analysis of Scientific Data

5

BME160Research Programming in the Life Sciences

6

BME263Applied Visualization and Analysis of Scientific Data

5

BME205Bioinformatics Models and Algorithms

5

BME229Protein and Cell Engineering

5

BME237Applied RNA Bioinformatics

5

CHEM200AAdvanced Biochemistry: Biophysical Methods

5

CHEM200BAdvanced Biochemistry: Macromolecular Structure and Function

5

CHEM200CAdvanced Biochemistry: Enzyme Mechanisms and Kinetics

5

CHEM230Grant Writing in Biomedical Research

5

ECE215Models of Robotic Manipulation

5

ECE293Advanced Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering

5

METX202Cell and Molecular Toxicology

5

METX206AAdvanced Microbiology

5

METX210Molecular and Cellular Basis of Bacterial Pathogenesis

5

METX238Pathogenesis: Molecular Mechanisms of Disease

5

PDP, Training in teaching offered by the Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators (ISEE)

STAT108Linear Regression

5

STAT202Linear Models in SAS

5

STAT205BIntermediate Classical Inference

5

STAT266A
/CSE 266A
Data Visualization and Statistical Programming in R

3

* Students who have had no or very little education in statistics should audit or take STAT 7 (5 credits) and perhaps also STAT 7L (2 credits) to learn basic statistical methodologies, before taking one of the graduate level courses.
** Students who take BIOL 290, Career Planning, take CHEM 230, Grant Writing, and/or participate in the Professional Development Program (PDP) may count only one of those as an advanced graduate elective.
*** Students may only count either EE 264 or ECE 293 toward their advanced graduate electives.

Other Requirements

Write a master’s thesis based on original research. (A scholarly dissertation of the literature and progress on research project. A peer-reviewed publication is not required for graduation.)

Present a thesis defense in a departmental seminar. The student will present their research project in a public venue such as a departmental seminar or one of the research clubs (RNA club, chromatin club, neuro club etc.).