Neuroscience and Biomedical Sciences Track Descriptions

Students have the choice of multiple curricula leading to the Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience.

Many students entering the Graduate School with an interest in pursuing advanced training in the Neurosciences elect to take the core Neuroscience curriculum, consisting of Systems and Organizational Neuroscience (Core I for this track) and Biostatistics in the Fall. In the Spring, these students complete their core courses with Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience (Core II) and Neural Basis of Behavior (Core III). Additional elective courses are offered in the first and second years.

Other students enter the Graduate School with broader interests in the Biomedical Sciences and take Core I (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) and Biostatistics in the Fall, and in the Spring, Core II (Cell and Developmental Biology), and the Neuroscience Core III (Neural Basis of Behavior). Elective courses commonly taken by students in this track include Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience (which can be taken in the Spring semester of the first or second year) and/or Systems and Organizational Neuroscience (which can be taken in the Fall semester of the second year).

Advanced electives available to all students include but are not limited to: Developmental Neurobiology, Neuroanatomy, Neurobiology of Aging, Advanced Signal Transduction, and Advanced Neurophysiology.

M.D./Ph.D. students will have taken Core I (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), Core II (Cell and Developmental Biology), and Brain and Behavior during their first two years of medical school. These students take Neural Basis of Behavior (Core III), and are encouraged to take Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology and other elective courses relevant to their research interests. Since the Systems and Organizational Neurobiology course includes lectures in the Brain and Behavior course that are supplemented with additional basic science lectures uniquely tailored for graduate students, many of the M.D./Ph.D. students are also encouraged to audit these remaining lectures that were not part of the Brain and Behavior course they took in medical school.

Neurobiology Journal Club is required for all students in the first year taking the Neuroscience Core Curriculum, while students taking the Biomedical Sciences Core Curriculum will take Introduction to Journal Club in their first year. From year two until graduation, all Neuroscience graduate students are required to present ongoing 'work in progress' research talks in Neurobiology Journal Club.