Typical Curriculum

Year by Year

Typical Curriculum Years 1and 2

Year 1 Summer

Students who have decided on a mentor after two rotations, join mentors lab by June 1. Students needing a third rotation have a full time rotation from April 2 to June 27, join mentor's lab by July 1.

Year 2
Electives

General requirement: Overall, students need to take 8 credits of Advanced Electives in the second year. With permission, students who have not taken Physiology or Mathematics for Biologists in Year 1 will be allowed to substitute the course for 3 of the advanced credits. Students may also take the 2 credit course Clinical Investigation for the Translational Scientist.

1. Students in both tracks can take Advanced Cell Signaling and Pharmacogenomics in years these courses are offered (one will be offered in each Spring, i.e. each course will be offered every other year):
• Advanced Cell Signaling Systems - 4 credits
• Pharmacogenomics - 2 credits
2. Many of the Advanced Elective credits are expected to be from participation in Customized Mini-Courses (CMCs), for which tentative examples and formats are provided below:

Students in the Pharmacology track will take at least 2 CMCs in Pharmacology Grouping and one in the Systems Biology Group.

Students in the Physiology and Systems Biology track will take at least 2 CMCs in Systems Biology Grouping a one in the Pharmacology grouping.

Customized Mini Courses (CMCs) - Year long - 1 credit

CMCs will be a set of readings/discussion forum-type courses with a maximum of 2-3 students per CMC. In each course student will read around 10 papers with preceptor and participate in a web-based discussion forum to answer and discuss questions on the papers posted by preceptor

CMCs in Physiology and Systems Biology
1. Cardiac Pathophysiologies	Akar
2. Genetic Basis of Health and Disease	Jepsen
3. Cell Signaling Networks and Systems Pharmacology	Iyengar
4. Bioinformatics	Ma'ayan
5. Approaches to Model Reduction	Sirovich
6. Network Building and Analysis	Ma'ayan
7. Cardiac Functions: Myocytes to the Heart	Sobie
8. Differential Equation-based Multi-scale Models	Sobie
CMCs in Pharmacology
9. Synaptic Plasticity and Memory	Blitzer
10. Advances in Drug Abuse Research	Devi
11. Clinical Correlates and Translational Biomedicine	He
12. Bacterial Pathogenesis and Antimicrobials	Krulwich
13. Structural Considerations in Drug Design	Zhou
14. Current Challenges in Drug Discovery Process	Diverse
15. Current strategies in Cancer Pharmacology	TBN
*TT = tentative title



3. Teaching: Students who are interested in building teaching skills will be encouraged to serve as TA's for the Systems Biomedicine, Pharmacology, Physiology and Biomedical Modeling courses. TA's will be given mentoring workshop opportunities to assist their development as teachers.

Typical MD/PhD Program

MD/PhD students typically pursue their research rotations
Pre-First year summer

One research rotation

Year 1, Summer

1 or 2 research rotations

Year 2, Medical School Curriculum

At the end of year 2, M.D./Ph.D. students will join a research laboratory; some students will first participate in a single clinical rotation. M.D./Ph.D. students in the Pharmacology and Physiology track will be given exemption from the PSB Pharmacology or Physiology course on the basis of the course taken as part of the Medical School curriculum. During their Ph.D. work, M.D./Ph.D. students will continue to participate in the Medical Scientist Research Seminars and will participate in a mentored clinical activity for at least a half day each month.

Year 3

Overall, M.D./Ph.D. students will take at least 10 Advanced Elective credits that may include Advanced Cell Signaling or Pharmacogenomics and CMCs. M.D./Ph.D. students can take the Systems Biology: Biomedical Modeling as Core III during this year. M.D./Ph.D. students enter PSB having taken a different Core course in their first year, they will be asked to serve as a TA in the fall Systems Biomedicine course.

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