Course Requirements

First year students must participate in the three-semester MCDB Core Curriculum and the rotations as listed above. The Core Curriculum consists of a 1 credit course on Scientific Ethics (first or second year, Fall) and three 3-credit courses, which include two first-year Lecture and Recitation (L&R) courses, one offered in Fall and the other in Spring: MCDB 5210, Cell Structure and Function, and MCDB 5230, Gene Expression, and one Methods and Logic (M&L) course based on reading and critiquing articles in the literature: MCDB 5250, Topics in Cell and Developmental Biology (second year, Spring). Students who elect to join the Genetics Training Program (see MCDB Graduate Courses) are required to take an additional M&L course, MCDB 5220, Molecular Genetics (second year, Fall). Students who elect to join the Signal Transduction and Cell Regulation program are required to take CHEM/MCDB 5426, Cell Signaling and Developmental Regulation (second year, Fall). Students not in a particular program may take another elective in this semester. In addition, a minimum of 8 more semester hours of courses numbered 5000 or above are required for the degree. These are generally taken in the second or third year from the list of graduate courses, although COGSA will consider other courses for inclusion when petitioned by a student.