Molecular Cell Biology

Faculty Contacts:
Steve Dowdy (sdowdy@ucsd.edu)

Molecular Cell Biology applies biochemical, genetic, molecular, and sophisticated morphological techniques to the investigation of basic cellular processes in health and disease. The Molecular Cell Biology Track provides abundant opportunities to investigate problems in molecular biology and cell biology. The track includes outstanding faculty members drawn from several departments in the School of Medicine to offer a breadth and depth of expertise in both research areas addressed and experimental approaches used in molecular cell biology.

Areas of investigation include cell signaling, glycobiology, lipid signaling and membrane trafficking, molecular motors and vesicular trafficking, chromosome biology, transcriptional regulation, RNA processing, cell cycle control, cancer cell biology and the layers of integration between these processes. These topics are investigated in a wide variety of organisms including yeast, Drosophila, C. elegans, mice and humans, using approaches that range from high-end microscopy to functional genomics.

Students are expected to choose elective courses that reflect a molecular cell biology focus, including participation in seminars and journal clubs with a molecular cell biology focus.

Participating BMS Faculty

Required Coursework for BMS students

BMS students take a core curriculum that provides the foundation to allow them to specialize in any of the offered tracks, focus areas, or customized study. In the Fall quarter, "Molecules to Organisms" provides a systematic approach to current Biomedical Research, using analysis of selected topics to focus on the process of research discovery and its critical evaluation. "Seminar in Biomedical Research" includes attendance at one of the UCSD seminar series and is designed to provoke critical discussion of the presented findings and scientific approaches in a small group setting. BMS students also take short courses in statistical analysis of data and ethics in research in the third quarter of their first year.

Recommended Electives:

Seminar in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Journal Clubs:

An essential aspect of graduate education is discussion and critical evaluation of current discoveries. Students in the Molecular Cell Biology Track are expected throughout their graduate careers to attend and meet with the speakers in the weekly Cellular and Molecular Medicine Seminar Series, which features outstanding speakers in molecular and cellular biology and medicine drawn from premiere institutions worldwide. They are also expected to pparticipate in one of several journal clubs: Cancer Biology Journal Club, Glycobiology Journal Club or Genetics Journal Club.

"The key to every biological problem must finally be sought in the cell". E. B. Wilson