Faculty members from the Institute of Chemical Toxicology, the School of Medicine, the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Allied Health Professions, the College of Science, and the Center for Molecular Medicine participate in this interdisciplinary program. The graduate program in Molecular and Cellular Toxicology emphasizes the use of contemporary approaches in cell and molecular biology to increase the understanding of the fundamental biological processes in chemically induced disease. In addition, the student completing this program is required to prepare a dissertation describing the results of original research and to present an oral defense of the dissertation. The first year is course work-intensive, with research rotations performed in the laboratories of two or more faculty members of the student's choice. Qualifying examinations for admission to Ph.D. candidacy are administered in the spring of the second year.
Subsequent years are primarily research-intensive in nature.
The Institute of Chemical Toxicology occupies approximately 33,000 square feet of laboratory space in the Metropolitan Center for High Technology. The Institute also has two dark rooms, several rooms dedicated to cell culture, and a transgenic animal facility. Computers are connected to external lines for database searches, and numerous software programs are available for gene sequence analysis and alignments and prediction of secondary structure and protein sequence. The Shiffman Medical Library maintains about 3,000 scientific periodicals and has more than 200,000 volumes of reference materials. The library also provides online access to several scientific and medical referencing databases.