Curriculum (1st Year PhD)

BIOCHEMISTRY AND STRUCTURAL

BIOLOGY (BSB) CURRICULUM

YEAR 1

Laboratory Rotations

• Three laboratory rotations - 3 months each

Course Work

• August 15 - October 31, 2010; 10 week GBS Core Course; 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. every weekday
• November - December 2010; 6 week BSB Laboratory Methods Course; 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. every weekday 

(3 wks) Cloning and Expression of Recombinant Proteins, Protein Purification, Mass Spectrometry,  NMR Spectroscopy, Crystallography.

(3 wks)  Recombineering to produce knockout and knockin vectors, gene targeting in murine ES cells, microinjection of ES cells into blastocysts, genotyping of knockin/knockout mice, reprogramming of skin fibroblasts into induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPS).

• January - May 2011

          Five BSB courses - 1 month each:

            January -   Molecular Enzymology 

            February - Molecular Genetics

            March -     RNA Biology

            April -       Stem Cell Biology

            May -        Structural Biology 

YEAR 2

• Choose Thesis Committee - Mentor plus four faculty members
• Qualifying Exam on Thesis Project - Written proposal and defense to committee by May 31 of Year 2

YEARS 3-5

• Thesis Research plus 4 Advanced Courses