Governing Body: The MCB Graduate Program is coordinated by a Steering Committee comprised of faculty representatives from each of the participating departments/units. MCB also has a student governing body which plans social events and voices students' concerns throughout the year.

Entering: Incoming students are provided with a list of the MCB Faculty Research Interests. An incoming student may request, based on his/her research interests, a Temporary Advisor from the MCB faculty, or, the student will be assigned a Temporary Advisor from the MCB Steering Committee. The student meets with the Temporary Advisor at the beginning of each semester to discuss the selection of courses, and laboratory rotations as required for the course, "MCB Research Methods." In this
course, the student rotates in 2-month long
laboratory rotations in 3 of the MCB Program's
participating research laboratories. This allows
the student an opportunity to become more
familiar with MCB faculty and their research.

Second and Third Year: The first two years of study include the MCB Core Curriculum and Electives. Also in the first two years, the student selects a dissertation advisor (by the end of the third semester) and forms his/her Dissertation Committee. Teaching experience is an important component of training. Students will teach undergraduate students in the Biology course (or provide comparable service) each semester during the first and second years of study. By the end of the fifth semester, the student is required to take the General (Preliminary) examination for Ph.D. eligibility.

Prelim Exam: The General (Preliminary) Examination consists of one proposition (selected by the student) that is presented as a written proposal and defended orally. The proposition will consist of an original research problem in molecular and cellular biology and should reflect ideas or theories derived by the student from advanced courses, seminars, and scientific literature. The topic must not directly relate to research ideas generated by the dissertation advisor. The preparation and defense of this proposition is intended to broaden the student's background conceptually and methodologically. The scope of the proposal will be that of a 2-3 year research project outlining specific experimental plans designed to address the central scientific question identified by the student. The mechanics of the submission of the proposal and its defense are as follows: the student's advisor indicates the general acceptability of the proposition topic and the student provides the Dissertation Committee with a written summary (1-2 pages) of the proposal. The Committee meets with the student to determine whether the proposal presents a fundamentally sound hypothesis and whether the student's background is appropriate to defend the proposition. The Committee also defines its expectations regarding the scope of both the written proposal and the oral examination. The student then prepares the proposal based on the Committee's recommendations. The student and the Dissertation Committee should allow for 6-8 weeks to write the proposal and to prepare for the oral examination. The proposition should be 10 to 15 single-spaced pages, excluding references and diagrams for figures, and should include the following sections: Specific Aims, Background and Significance, Experimental Design and Predicted Results, Potential Problems in Experimentation or Interpretation, and References. The proposal must represent the student's own work. Committee members should receive copies of the proposition at least two weeks prior to the scheduled date of the exam. The proposal will be defended during an oral examination. The written proposal and oral defense of it will be judged on the basis of the student's knowledge of the area, originality of the approach proposed for the experiments or the hypothesis to be proven, likelihood of the conclusions to be drawn from the experiments, and the ability of the student to critically evaluate his/her proposed research methods and expected results. During the oral examination, the student may also be questioned on any other area of molecular and cellular biology at the discretion of the dissertation committee.

Prospectus: Following successful completion of the General (Preliminary) exam, each student submits a Prospectus of his/her ongoing and proposed laboratory research, no less than one year prior to defense of the dissertation.

Dissertation: By the end of four years of study, the student is required to complete an original research project that is of publication quality as assessed by the Dissertation Committee, and to write a dissertation according to the rules of the Graduate School. The dissertation will be presented in a seminar format open to the public, followed by closer inspection by the Dissertation Committee. For awarding of the Ph.D., the student must have his/her Dissertation approved by his/her Dissertation Committee, as well as passing a final examination of the dissertation administered by that Committee.