Program Overview
Welcome to MolGen at UC
The University of Cincinnati is a major state university, having a student enrollment of approximately 35,000. Our College of Medicine is first amongst all State of Ohio medical schools in grant support and is in the top 25% of all U.S. medical schools in terms of research productivity. Cincinnati itself is an attractive and hilly riverfront community with a metropolitan population of about 1.5 million. It is renowned for its riverfests, parks, museums, zoo, symphony, professional sports, jazz and theater. Major projects are currently transforming the shoreline on both sides of the Ohio River to create significant new entertainment, cultural and sporting amenities.
The Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology currently comprises 27 faculty and 50 graduate students, along with a significant population of postdoctoral fellows, all supported by over 50 other research and administrative staff. We invite applications from students wishing to engage in either a research-intensive Ph.D. program or a thesis or non-thesis based M.S. program. The majority of students in our program are following the Ph.D. path - however, for those students who wish to strengthen their credentials prior to various professional, technical or other endeavors, the M.S path may be appropriate.
Research Opportunities
Our graduate program provides a collegial atmosphere that fosters top quality research combined with in-depth course work, seminars, and journal clubs. In this environment, students learn to apply the latest scientific technology to the most exciting areas of biological research including: gene and chromosome structure, regulation of gene expression, protein chemistry and engineering, structural biology, membrane structure and function, intracellular trafficking, signal transduction pathways, oncogenes and growth factors, and pathogenic mechanisms. For many of these studies, a variety of genetic systems are employed, including human, mouse, Drosophila and yeast. In addition to well equipped faculty laboratories, the department houses several core laboratories to facilitate the research process, including DNA sequencing, synthesis and genotyping, mouse transgenic and gene targeting facilities, as well as state of the art NMR and X ray crystallographic facilities. Furthermore, the College has recently launched extensive genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics cores, providing the tools to capitalize on the human and other genome projects.
A Teaching Option
While there is no requirement (or expectation) for students enrolled in our Graduate Program to teach, the University of Cincinnati (and the Department) recognizes that for some graduate students the opportunity to obtain exposure to, and gain skills in, teaching and mentoring of undergraduate students is likely to be of significant value in various future career options. Consequently, a certificate program has been developed, entitled Preparing Future Faculty (PFF), which exposes students already embarked on a graduate degree to a series of seminars about effective teaching practices, how to engage in an academic job search, and provides internship opportunities in local undergraduate institutions (such as Xavier University, Northern Kentucky University, and others) where faculty roles and duties can be experienced via a "shadowing" program with an individual faculty member. Furthermore, there is an additional module for students in the Life Sciences that focuses particularly on academic careers in biology and biomedical science. Participation in these PFF programs is typically appropriate for more advanced students (e.g., 3rd or 4th year). While recognizing that our students' first priority is to their laboratory research and obtaining their Ph.D., it is permissible to participate in this program with written approval from both the dissertation advisor and the departmental Graduate Committee.
