Completion of this program prepares individuals for a research and teaching career in a medical school, university or undergraduate college, as well as in government or industrial research laboratories. The program is flexible and is built around a first-year course sequence in cellular and systems physiology. Emphasis is given to placing students in research laboratories in the first semester. Students typically rotate through two or three different laboratories, during the first year, to facilitate their selection of a specific area of research. Specialized courses are available in physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and pharmacology to help fulfill requirements for the major and minor areas of study.
Students undertake dissertation research in their second through fifth years of study.
The interdisciplinary nature of this program is indicated in the connectivity diagram which shows the home departments and colleges of faculty members in this program. It is this extensive trans-departmental affiliation that brings fresh approaches, div erse inputs, and the melding of ideas from different areas to this graduate program.