Training & Curriculum

First-year students will be introduced to mentors and laboratories and will select up to three laboratories through which to rotate. Students will spend time in these laboratories familiarizing themselves with the research and the researchers. At the end of the laboratory rotations, the students will select their dissertation mentors for their primary research leading to the doctoral degree.

During the first year, all students will complete the core curriculum and participate in ongoing workshops, seminars and research-in-progress talks as well as complete three trimesters of didactic courses focusing on translational research components, research ethics, scientific writing, cell research and disease systems.

The goal of the core curriculum is to:

1. Acquire skillsets for designing, testing, presenting, and critically reviewing rigorously planned biomedical research; 
2. Provide an overview of the research areas, skills, knowledge base, and stakeholders involved in the translational sciences trajectory; and 
3. Apply skills learned from 1 and 2 toward understanding and studying the intrinsic and extrinsic factors contributing to healthy and diseased cells and multicellular systems, through the lens of the Discovery, Development, and Delivery arms of the translational continuum.

Trimester 1: Fundamentals of Translational Research

The first trimester presents the essential skills in research including the forming of hypotheses and aims, reading and presenting a research paper, introducing rigor and reproducibility in research as well as bioethics in translational research. Each student will also be introduced to the technologies, mechanisms and methods of translational discovery, the preclinical methods and standard operating procedures of translational development and the regulatory and clinical trials considerations in translational delivery.

Trimester 2: 3D’s in Cell Intrinsic and Extrinsic Research

The second trimester concentrates on applying Discovery, Development, and Delivery skillsets toward cell intrinsic and extrinsic research including gene expression and regulation, protein translation and degradation, membrane dynamics and intracellular trafficking and intracellular signaling. Cell to cell interactions and cell-microenvironment interactions are also covered.

Trimester 3: 3D’s in Organ and Multicellular systems

Students will address organ and multicellular systems in the third and final trimester of the core curriculum through the lens of the Discovery, Development, and Delivery arms of the translational continuum. The immune system, neurobiology, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal systems will be explored within their context to health and human disease along with researching lung development and disease and cancer and aging.

During the second year, students must complete a bioethics course, successfully complete a qualifying examination and participate in ongoing workshops and seminars. In addition, students must attend weekly research-in-progress meetings, which are required through to their fourth year.

After successfully passing the qualifying examination, students are advanced to PhD candidacy. At this time, students select a doctoral committee and prepare a proposal for their dissertation research.

In their third year (and on), students complete thesis research and write and defend their dissertation. Students meet regularly with their doctoral committees and participate in ongoing workshops, seminars and research-in-progress meetings.

Students may also select a translational research mentor who supplements and adds value to the student's research while building on the translational and clinical element of the student's dissertation. Students are required to include a chapter on the translational relevance of their research in their final dissertation.

During this time, students also participate in an annual Graduate Student Symposium where graduate students present research talks and poster presentations. Graduate students from other institutions are invited to participate to share research and ideas as well as network.