Graduate Program
The Department of Oncological Sciences offers graduate education in modern molecular biology with an emphasis on cancer biology. The department is multidisciplinary with areas of specialty training in gene expression, molecular pharmacology, cell biology and development.
The Department accepts students for Ph.D. degrees through the campus-wide programs in Molecular Biology or Biological Chemistry. Students take an initial year of core courses and have opportunities to perform short research projects in the labs of several faculty members. Students then choose a lab for their graduate research. Students pursue 4-5 years of independent research. Ph.D. students must also fulfill additional course and teaching requirements.
Student can apply for support from one of four training grants funded by the National Institutes of Health in areas of Cancer Biology, Genetics, Developmental Biology or Biochemistry. Otherwise support is available from individual research grants of faculty mentors.
Most members of the faculty are Investigators at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Several faculty members are members of the Human Molecular Biology and Genetics Program and one investigator belongs to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Training is also available with adjunct faculty whose primary affiliation is in one of the clinical departments in the School of Medicine, including, Divisions of Oncology, Cardiology and Hematology within the Department of Internal Medicine and the Department of Pediatrics.
After first year enrollment in Graduate Program core curriculum, students elect from a variety of lecture and seminar courses, including two courses focused on cancer, one covering the molecular basis of cancer and another surveying its clinical challenges. Students also present each year in a research-in-progress seminar and participate in a special topics journal club with students and faculty.
