International applicants must pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language with a score of 600 or above. The program selects student advisers from the program's basic science faculty members and from several clinical departments in the School of Medicine. All students participate in departmental or schoolwide seminars and a series of three laboratory rotations to familiarize them with faculty research. Additional elective courses may be added. To be eligible for a doctoral degree, students must complete at least 38 credits of course work beyond the 12 required credits of doctoral dissertation research for a total of 50 credits.
Students take a written and oral qualifying examination at the end of their third semester.
Qualified students then choose a doctoral dissertation adviser and begin research. This twice-weekly literature, discussion, and lecture course covers mechanisms of hormone action upon target cells, with emphasis on the molecular mechanisms by which hormones mediate their cellular effect. Students should be already familiar with fundamentals of bacterial structure and metabolism. The first part of the course covers basic ideas, while the second part examines selected specific organisms in further detail. Classes consist of lectures and discussion of research papers.