;

Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology M.S.

Introduction

Students apply to the master’s degree program through the same portal as for the Ph.D. degree program. While the M.S. is research intensive, master’s students do not do research rotations; they must identify a research advisor prior to the training period. Students are required to participate in laboratory research meetings and departmental seminar series every quarter.

Requirements

Course Requirements

Complete the graduate core course:

BIOL 200ACritical Analysis of Scientific Literature

5

BIOL 200A to be completed in the first year. 

And the following courses:

BIOL 288Pedagogy in STEM

2

BIOL 289Practice of Science

5

Enroll in the following seminar series each quarter:

BIOL 291Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Seminar

2

BIOL 292MCD Seminar

0

Complete two approved advanced electives (list below). The two electives may be completed in either the first or second year. 

Approved Graduate Electives

(M.S. students must complete two electives)

Note: Lecture/lab combinations count as one course. For BME 163 and BME 263, only one of these courses will be counted toward fulfillment of the electives.

BIOL 200EExperimental Design

3

BIOL 200FLogic and Approaches to Scientific Discovery

5

BIOL 201RNA Processing

5

BIOL 203Ribosomes and Translation

5

BIOL 204Chromatin

5

BIOL 205Epigenetics

5

BIOL 206Introduction to Stem Cell Biology

5

BIOL 206LCurrent Protocols in Stem Cell Biology

5

BIOL 215Applied Statistics for Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

5

BIOL 208Cellular Signaling Mechanisms

5

BIOL 214Advances in Cancer Biology

5

BIOL 217Influence of Environment and Experience on Brain Development

5

BIOL 218CRISPR/Cas Technologies

5

BIOL 226Advanced Molecular Neuroscience

5

BIOL 228Developmental Neurobiology

5

BIOL 290Career Planning

2

BME 110Computational Biology Tools

5

BME 130Genomes

5

BME 163Applied Visualization and Analysis of Scientific Data

3

BME 160Research Programming in the Life Sciences

6

BME 263Applied Visualization and Analysis of Scientific Data

5

BME 205Bioinformatics Models and Algorithms

5

BME 229Protein and Cell Engineering

5

BME 237Applied RNA Bioinformatics

5

CHEM 200AAdvanced Biochemistry: Biophysical Methods

5

CHEM 200BAdvanced Biochemistry: Macromolecular Structure and Function

5

CHEM 200CAdvanced Biochemistry: Enzyme Mechanisms and Kinetics

5

CHEM 230Grant Writing in Biomedical Research

5

ECE 236Optics and Microscopy

5

ECE 237Image Processing and Reconstruction

5

METX 202Cell and Molecular Toxicology

5

METX 206AAdvanced Microbiology

5

METX 210Molecular and Cellular Basis of Bacterial Pathogenesis

5

METX 238Pathogenesis: Molecular Mechanisms of Disease

5

PDP, Training in teaching offered by the Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators (ISEE)

STAT 108Linear Regression

5

STAT 202Linear Models in SAS

5

STAT 205BIntermediate Classical Inference

5

STAT 266A
/CSE 266A
Data Visualization and Statistical Programming in R

3

Students who have had no or very little education in statistics should audit or take STAT 7 (5 credits) and perhaps also STAT 7L (2 credits) to learn basic statistical methodologies, before taking one of the graduate level courses.

Students who take BIOL 290, Career Planning, take CHEM 230, Grant Writing, and/or participate in the Professional Development Program (PDP) may count only one of those as an advanced graduate elective.

Students may count either ECE 236 or ECE 237 but not both toward their advanced graduate electives.

Other Requirements

Write a master’s thesis based on original research (a scholarly dissertation of the literature and progress on research project; a peer-reviewed publication is not required for graduation).

Present a thesis defense in a departmental seminar. The student will present their research project in a public venue such as a departmental seminar or one of the research clubs (RNA club, chromatin club, neuro club, etc.).