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:

BIOL200A

Critical Analysis of Scientific Literature

BIOL 200A to be completed in the first year

The following course:

BIOL289

Practice of Science

Enroll in the following seminar series each quarter:

BIOL291	Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Seminar	2
BIOL292	MCD 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.

BIOL200B	Advanced Molecular Biology	5
BIOL200C	Advanced Cell Biology	5
BIOL200D	Developmental Biology	5
BIOL201	RNA Processing	5
BIOL203	Ribosomes and Translation	5
BIOL204	Chromatin	5
BIOL205	Epigenetics	5
BIOL206	Introduction to Stem Cell Biology	5
BIOL206L	Current Protocols in Stem Cell Biology	5
BIOL215	Applied Statistics for Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology	5
BIOL208	Cellular Signaling Mechanisms	5
BIOL214	Advances in Cancer Biology	5
BIOL217	Influence of Environment and Experience on Brain Development	5
BIOL226	Advanced Molecular Neuroscience	5
BIOL228	Developmental Neurobiology	5
BIOL290	Career Planning	2
BME110	Computational Biology Tools	5
BME130	Genomes	5
BME163	Applied Visualization and Analysis of Scientific Data	5
BME160	Research Programming in the Life Sciences	6
BME263	Applied Visualization and Analysis of Scientific Data	5
BME205	Bioinformatics Models and Algorithms	5
BME229	Protein and Cell Engineering	5
BME237	Applied RNA Bioinformatics	5
CHEM200A	Advanced Biochemistry: Biophysical Methods	5
CHEM200B	Advanced Biochemistry: Macromolecular Structure and Function	5
CHEM200C	Advanced Biochemistry: Enzyme Mechanisms and Kinetics	5
CHEM230	Grant Writing in Biomedical Research	5
ECE215	Models of Robotic Manipulation	5
ECE293	Advanced Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering	5
METX202	Cell and Molecular Toxicology	5
METX206A	Advanced Microbiology	5
METX210	Molecular and Cellular Basis of Bacterial Pathogenesis	5
METX238	Pathogenesis: Molecular Mechanisms of Disease	5
	PDP, Training in teaching offered by the Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators (ISEE)
STAT108	Linear Regression	5
STAT202	Linear Models in SAS	5
STAT205B	Intermediate 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.).