Graduate Curriculum
Program Overview | Course Descriptions
Program Overview
The overall aim of the graduate program is to guide the student through the process of acquiring the research skills and the intellectual abilities needed to become an independent scientist. With this in mind, students enter the laboratory as soon as they start the program, while also fulfilling the course requirements.
First Year:
Students take required courses offered within and outside the department. They rotate through three laboratories of their own choosing carrying out short projects to acquaint them with research techniques and to assist them in their later choice of a dissertation advisor. Each rotation is equivalent to a minimum of four weeks full-time effort in the laboratory. Students attend seminars given by members of the department and visiting speakers. Learn more about the research interests of the molecular and cellular pharmacology graduate program faculty.
Second Year:
Students choose a mentor and begin to conduct their dissertation research at the beginning of the second year. They continue to take courses during the fall. In the spring, students take the qualifying examination. For this examination, students produce a written research proposal on which they are examined by a faculty committee.
Third and subsequent years:
These years are devoted mainly to laboratory research and the completing the dissertation. During the third year, students assemble a dissertation supervisory committee and present their dissertation proposal for approval by the committee. Students are encouraged to write research papers and to attend and present papers at national or regional scientific meetings. They continue to attend and present their research at departmental seminars and to participate in intellectual activities within the department.
The above chronology is that of most students, but the department will adapt the program if special circumstances warrant. A student entering with advanced qualifications may be exempted from certain requirements. MD/Ph.D students undertake a slightly modified schedule.
Students are normally expected to finish their dissertation within approximately five years of matriculation. However, the department is more concerned with the quality of the thesis and original publications resulting from the program than with a rigorous time schedule.
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Course Descriptions
 First Year Fall
IBS 601-Interdisciplinary Biomedical Science Core (5 cr./4 cr.)
A comprehensive one-year course designed to provide first year graduate students with core knowledge of Molecular and Cellular Biology.
MCP 601-Seminar (1 cr.)
Students must attend the Departmental seminars (includes both "in-house" and "outside" seminars, usually Tuesday and/or Thursday noon) and present at least one seminar per year. A graduate student who has not yet begun thesis research shall present a seminar on a topic agreed upon by the student and his/her rotation advisor; the talk will be prepared under the direct supervision of a suitable faculty member. At least two weeks before the seminar, the student and faculty member will meet, and the faculty member will suggest or approve readings for the seminar. One week before the seminar, the student should formally present the talk to the supervisor, who will suggest any necessary additions or corrections. The talk itself should be designed to last 20-25 minutes without interruptions; this will allow time for questions. More senior students (3rd year and above) will present 1-hour research seminars based on their research.
An important component of the Seminar Program consists of weekly meetings of the first- and second-year students with one or more members of the faculty to discuss both the scientific points made by the previous seminar speaker and his/her lecturing style. "Previews" of student seminars are also discussed at these meetings.
MCP 604-Mechanisms of Drug Action (2 cr.)
This course consists of a combination of lectures, problem sessions and student presentations. Students will be given in-depth exposure to the fundamental principles of Pharmacology. The mechanism of action of specific drug classes will be examined in detail.
MCP 643-Rotations (3 cr.)
MCP 680-Research Ethics (0 cr.)
While the Research Ethics course aims to promote scientific integrity, and so will address examples of frank wrongdoing, it is acknowledged that modern scientific research raises questions on which reasonable people disagree. One of the goals of the course is therefore to provide a conceptual or analytical framework for critical decision-making. The motivation for this approach is that ethical problems arise in a wide variety of circumstances and it is not feasible to review or predict all of them; introducing an analytical framework arguably provides students with some of the tools necessary for evaluating different and novel kinds of problems as they arise; and this best prepares students to meet future challenges to scientific integrity. Each of the six topics to be covered will be introduced by a short presentation that will be followed by guided discussion. It is expected that students will participate in the sessions, in the manner of a roundtable or seminar. Following are the course components:
- Scientific misconduct, responsibility and data management
- Social mechanisms in science: Publication and authorship
- Intellectual property and conflicts of interest
- Use of animals in research
- Environmental ethics
- Human subjects and valid consent
- Managing misconduct; the UM Honor Code
First Year Spring:
IBS 601-Interdisciplinary Biomedical Science Core (4 cr.)
IBS 620-Scientific Writing (2 cr.)
IBS 683-Professional Skills & Ethics (Survival Skills) (1 cr.)
MCP 601-Seminar (1 cr.)
MCP 631-Journal Club (Sect.01; 1 cr.)
In the first year, students take the Departmental Journal Club course. This a reading/discussion course, usually led by two Departmental faculty members. Students read new, original papers on a theme selected at the beginning of the term, and meet once per week to discuss and critically evaluate these papers.
MCP 631-Molecular Techniques in Cardiovascular Research (Sect.02)
(offered every other academic year)
This new biotechnology-oriented cardiovascular techniques course will be offered on a occasional basis to all pre- and postdoctoral students supported by the training grant. This advanced course, taught by actively practicing specialists from our faculty will include demonstrations of equipment and techniques in the individual laboratories as well a lecture series. The focus will be on high profile areas of modern cardiovascular research from molecular and cellular methods through to animal models of cardiovascular function and disease. The following areas will be covered (1) Gene therapy techniques (Dr. K. Webster): promoter design, choice of therapeutic gene, construction of adenoviral and adeno-associate viral vectors, relevant pharmacokinetics, delivery methods and follow-up analyses. (2) Cardiovascular hemodynamic monitoring (Dr. N. Bishopric): echocardiography on small animals and humans, angiography, chart analysis, catheter techniques. (3) Gene microarray techniques (Dr. R. Bookman): theory and practice, including preparation of gene chips, RNA purification and labeling techniques and data analysis (4) Transgenic animal techniques (Dr. J. Potter): cardiovascular gene targeting, stem cell technology, microinjections, transgene analysis, and phenotype characterizations (5) Patch clamping techniques (Dr. R. Bookman and A. Bassett): comparative studies on cardiomyocytes from normal and diseased hearts with an emphasis on electrophysiology with molecular biology.
MCP 632-Cardiovascular Pharmacology (3 cr.)
The course covers cardiovascular pharmacology as well as necessary cardiovascular physiology and anatomy. The course also covers the function and pharmacology of the autonomic nervous system.
MCP 644-Rotations (3 cr.)
Second Year Fall:
MCP 601-Seminar (1 cr.)
MCP 604-Mechanisms of Drug Action-Presentations (1 cr.)
MCP 652-Cell Signaling (3 cr.)
This course provides an in-depth study of the processes through which cellular function is regulated by extrinsic signals. The signal transduction mechanisms utilized by hormones and growth factors are discussed with regard to the regulation of receptor function, GTP-binding proteins, gene transcription, ion channels and intracellular second messengers (ras, kinases and phosphatases, etc.).
MCP 668-Neuropharmacology (3 cr.)
An intensive seminar course covering the mechanism of action of drugs on basic neural processes, including action potentials, neurotransmission (storage, release, reception and metabolism of transmitters), and central nervous activity.
Second Year Spring:
MCP 601-Seminar (1 cr.)
Training Grant Cardiovascular Journal Club
This journal club has four main goals. (1) education of TG faculty and trainees in current cardiovascular scientific research. (2) training of TG students and postdoctoral fellows in critical analysis of scientific literature. (3) encouraging interdisciplinary information transfer that will broaden and deepen cardiovascular research in the Training Program and (4) to place recent basic research in the context of clinical care. Participation in the journal club by postdoctoral and predoctoral trainees is mandatory. Faculty sponsoring or mentoring TG trainees are also required to attend and direct the Journal club on a rotating basis. Meetings, however, are open to all interested parties. Meetings will be held bi-monthly and last two hours. The focus of the group alternates among five general areas: Excitable tissues & channel function, vascular biology, muscle function and energetics, genetics, and basic signal transduction/transcription. Each meeting focuses on a single area and covers 2-4 papers. Each meeting is supervised by a TG faculty member, who is in charge of selecting these papers from the recent literature and assigning them to individual students/trainees for presentation. The faculty member evaluates the presentations and facilitates discussion. The goal is to focus on critical new findings and place them in context, rather than to exhaustively cover every aspect of each paper. The Journal Club is organized and administered by Drs. J. Potter and Szczesna-Cordary.
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