Curriculum Overview
Our curriculum, combined with the research and rotation opportunities, provides a flexible educational opportunity for doctoral students to specialize in the broad subject of translational medicine while being focused more specifically on the fundamentals of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. The SCBRM doctoral program provides an avenue for graduate education to translate the best of basic research into a clinical setting.
The mission of the SCBRM graduate program is produce future leaders in translational science through a combination of basic science and clinical/professional immersion, Our innovative program will change the landscape for graduate education in the biomedical sciences by having the immersion tailored to each student’s translational goals. We will accommodate students who wish to focus primarily at the basic science level alongside those who wish to focus specifically on innovation such as a new device to solve a clinical problem. In the former case, the student might seek out a primary mentor affiliated with the basic sciences and take electives that reflect the more basic interest. In the later case, the student might select an elective with an engineering focus and seek out primary mentorship with a more-clinically or more-engineering focused mentor.
All students, regardless of penchant, will enroll in the unique SCBRM core courses—SCBRM I, II and III (STEMREM296/297/298)—as well as the SCBRM Regenerative Medicine weekly seminar series. These courses provide the unique material required for a firm foundation in innovation in SCBRM. SCBRM-I is a unique course offering that combines didactic lectures with comprehensive laboratory-based instruction in derivation of pluripotent stem cells, embryology, cell sorting, imaging and other related topics. This course will provide the educational foundation, hands-on skill development and social group building within each first-year class of students. SCBRM-II provides didactic instruction by leaders in the field in fundamentals of SCBRM exploration of the most well-studied system of hematopoiesis, molecular pathways of pluripotency, tissue-specific stem cells, cancer stem cells, and ends with coverage of aging and stem cells. SCBRM-III provides the clinical or professional immersion and allows insight into the world of medicine, or pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry from multiple vantage points, setting the stage,for the students to translate research successfully beyond the academic sphere.
All aspects are conducted in supportive but rigorous scientific environment with the intention that students should maximize their scientific potential and contribute to future healthcare applications.