The Cellular and Molecular Biology (CMB) Program at the University of Michigan has been a free-standing Ph.D. degree-granting program of the Rackham School of Graduate Studies for over thirty years.
The aim of this program is to train students with a broad perspective in cellular and molecular biosciences. It is one of the most popular graduate programs in biomedical sciences at Michigan, and during the past 5 years, 78 new students entered the Program and 44 others received Ph.D. degrees. The University-wide CMB Program draws on faculty, courses and research facilities from 23 departments in the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Engineering and the College of Literature Sciences and the Arts. This diversity of expertise and opportunity allows students the broadest possible choice in terms of both elective coursework and strong research training environments. At the same time, students in the Program share a core of common training experiences through a flexible program of required and elective coursework, a strong student seminar program, student-organized short courses, an annual symposium and poster session, a research forum, social events and service to the Program. CMB events provide cohesiveness for the Program and contribute to the intellectual environment of the University as highly regarded and well-attended scientific activities. Research programs in the laboratories of the 108 faculty members in CMB cover a wide range of disciplines, including: genetics, genomics, gene regulation;cell biology, biochemistry, physiology and structure;microbial pathogenesis;immunology;developmental biology, neurobiology, aging;molecular mechanisms and genetics of disease. The CMB Program is the only entity at the University that provides training in such diverse problems and perspectives, encouraging interdisciplinary approaches to both basic and translational biomedical research. The continuing growth of the CMB Program reflects increasing interest in its interdisciplinary approach, and highlights its unique role in the context of the Program in Biomedical Sciences at the University. This proposal requests support for 20 trainees, with the aim of supporting 10 students per year for two years. The current goal is to maintain the vitality of the CMB Program while retaining the high quality and individualized training for which CMB is known. Relevance: The research performed by students in the CMB Program directly addresses problems in both fundamental and clinical sciences that have important implications for a broad array of public health problems, including cancer, chronic (e.g. diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis), infectious (e.g. AIDS, mycobacterial) and neurodegenerative (e.g. Parkinson's, Alzheimer's) diseases. Further, training students who apply cellular and molecular approaches to a wide variety of scientific disciplines continues to add to the population of outstanding scientists in academic and applied research whose work advances knowledge in a wide range of areas important for human health.
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