The MIT Department of Biology is applying for continued support of its highly successful training program for graduate students in the biological sciences. The long term objective of the program is to prepare our students for independent professional careers in the life sciences, applying the tools of basic research to the questions of modern medicine and biology in both academic and industrial settings. The training program has several components: providing students with a solid foundation in the intellectual bases of modern biology;exposing students to the wide range of scientific questions and technical approaches now integral to the life sciences;teaching students the skills of experimental design, data analysis, and effective communication;and educating students in the ethical and social issues that are part of doing research. Ethical and social issues are explored in the context of several courses. In addition, in the second year of training, students take a special course designed specifically to cover issues related to the responsible conduct of research. The excellent students who enter our program are selected by a competitive process that includes a personal interview. The first semester of the program emphasizes formal courses. Students typically take three required courses designed to teach genetics, biochemistry, and methods of analysis, and one elective course selected from a wide range of choices. Students take three more elective courses in the spring semester. Beginning in the spring semester of the first year, students participate in three one-month laboratory rotations. At the end of the semester students choose a lab for their thesis research. Students can choose from any of the 60 laboratories in the Department, covering a wide variety of topics, including: biochemistry, bioinformatics, cancer biology, cell biology, computational biology, developmental biology, enzymology, genetics and medical genetics, genomics, immunology, microbiology, neurobiology, physiology, and systems biology. Throughout their graduate careers, students continue their education through departmental seminars, journal clubs, and special interest groups. We currently have twelve under-represented minority graduate students in the program and will continue our efforts to attract, recruit, and train qualified under-represented minority applicants. Our graduate students play major roles in the intellectual life and research efforts of the Department and go on to make substantive contributions to modern biology.
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