The student must acquire a professional level of competence in all aspects of research design and conduct during the doctoral program. The student will become familiar with a specific field of research in order to identify significant unanswered scientific questions in that area, develop testable hypotheses and experimental designs for those questions, and acquire the necessary technical and analytical skills to conduct the experiments and interpret the results. Learning how to teach effectively is also an important part of graduate training. Students are encouraged to serve as teaching assistants in courses for medical and undergraduate students, usually after completion of their own coursework. Presentations by graduate students in the seminar course and at the Student-Postdoc Research in Progress Series provide opportunities for practice in the preparation and delivery of didactic presentation outside the classroom.
Students generally select four to five electives to supplement their department courses.
Biochemistry or permission of department. Membrane potentials, ion channels, synaptic transmission and secretion, and membrane transport. Physiology of endocrinology and signal transduction. Muscle, cardiovascular and renal physiology. A directed reading course offered on demand.