Program Description

The Cell Biology Area of Concentration (CB AoC) at the UConn Health offers training leading to a Ph.D. in Biomedical Science. First year students will take core courses (see details below). In the second year, while students continue to take some advanced elective courses, the main emphasis shifts towards research and preparation for general examination. Individual students should form Advisory Committees, and complete general examination before the end of their second year. From third year on, students will continue to participate in Cell Biology Journal Club and focus on their thesis research with the aim of completing their thesis before the end of the 5th year.

Guide for Graduate Students

Major Advisor and Thesis Advisory Committee

Upon entering the Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program, students are expected to choose a major advisor before the end of the first year. The major advisor must be a member of the Cell Bio AoC. Upon selection of a thesis laboratory, students will complete the Change of Advisor forms Part 1 and 2 (found on the Student page under “For Biomedical Science Ph.D. Students).

A student must form an Advisory Committee by December 31 of the second year. The Advisory Committee consists of five members

  • Major Advisor
  • The Chair of the Committee should be a Cell Bio AoC leadership and cannot be the major advisor.
    To assure uniformity of the prelim exam, at least one member of the student’s prelim exam
    committee must be the director, co-director, or assistant director of the Cell-Bio graduate
    program.
  • 3 additional faculty from UConn Health, JAX-GM, or external as appropriate

The function of the Advisory Committee includes: (1) helping to monitor the student’s progress, (2) advising the student on developing a Plan of Study, (3) administering the general (preliminary) examination, and (4) serving in a general advisory capacity. After the student has successfully completed the general examination, the Advisory Committee will serve as the Ph.D. thesis Advisory Committee. The committee should meet with the student at least once a year. All committee members and examiners must be present at the meeting.

Plan of Study

The Plan of Study form (found on the UConn Graduate School Forms page under “Forms For Enrolled Doctoral Students”) must be approved prior to taking the General Examination. The Plan must be first approved by the Advisory Committee as well as the AoC director prior to being submitted to the Graduate School for approval.

Course Requirements

A student must earn a total of at least 45 credits of graduate work to be awarded a Ph.D. degree, including 30 credits of content courses (i.e., courses without GRAD designation) and 15 credits of doctoral thesis dissertation (GRAD 6950). As per the requirements of the Graduate School, students must take at least 6 credits of classroom courses each semester of the first year (except for the summer), and 6 credits of classroom courses in the second year. Typically, students should have completed all of these 18 formal course credits by the end of the second Fall semester so that a Plan of Study can be submitted and approved in time for General Examination. Exceptions may be made for those with Master’s degree by credit transfer from some of the previous graduate courses that they have taken at other institutions.

Required Courses

  • MEDS 6503 First Year Graduate Experience in Biomedical Science (2 credits)- Fall and Spring
  • MEDS 6448 Foundations of Biomedical Science I (4 credits)- Fall
  • MEDS 6449 Foundations of Biomedical Science II (4 credits)- Spring
  • MEDS 5310 Responsible Conduct in Research (1 credit)- Spring
  • MEDS 6497 Cell Biology Journal Club (all semesters past 1st year, 1 credit each)
  • GRAD 6950 Doctoral Dissertation Research (3 credits per semester, minimum 15 credits)

Recommended Electives

The following is a list of courses most often taken by Cell Biology students.  However with the approval of their Advisory Committee, students can select from any graduate level course offered by the Graduate School.

  • MEDS 5329 Immunobiology  (4 credits, Fall)
  • MEDS 5309 Molecular Basis of Disease (2 credits, Fall)
  • MEDS 5369 Advanced Genetics & Molecular Biology (3 credits, Fall, even years)
  • MEDS 5418 Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (3 credits, Fall, odd years)
  • MEDS 6455 Introduction to Systems Biology (3 credits, Spring)
  • MEDS 6413 Introduction to Cancer Biology (2 credits, Fall, even years)
  • MEDS 5322 Introduction to Developmental Biology (2 credit, Spring)

The exact credits and time of offering may be subject to change. Students should consult course catalogues in the Graduate School website under Students – For Biomedical Science Ph.D. Students – Biomedical Science Course Offerings.

Cell Biology Journal Club (MEDS 6497, Section F02)
The Cell Biology Journal Club provides a forum for students to critically evaluate literature, propose hypotheses, and gain experience in presentation and discussion. All students are required to register for the Cell Biology Journal Club for the tenure of their Ph.D. training once they have completed their first year, except for the one semester when the student is writing and defending thesis.

Research Progress Seminar Series
Once a year, each Cell Bio AoC student must present their research progress at a Research Progress Seminar series which is open to all students, postdoctoral fellows, research staff, and faculty members. All CB graduate students are required to attend the presentations. Substantially prior to the presentation, the student should invite the Advisory Committee and Examiners so that they can plan ahead and attend the presentation. Students should discuss the timing of the presentation and scheduling with their advisor.

General Examination

The General examination is administered to individual students by his/her Advisory Committee. The exam is designed to assess the student’s ability to formulate a hypothesis, design experiments and interpret data. It may also encompass various aspects of fundamental knowledge related to the theoretical and technical aspects of the student’s research area. The exam consists of two parts: (1) a written exam in the form of an NIH F32-Fellowship style research proposal based on the intended Ph.D. thesis research and (2) an oral defense of the grant proposal, once the Advisory Committee approves the written proposal. Passing this exam formally admits the student to doctoral candidacy.

The General examination must be taken by the end of the second year for PhD students or G1 year for dual degree students. Students must take both components (a written exam and an oral defense) by June 30th. The entire process, including any necessary remediation and result reporting, must be completed by August 15th.

Timeline

Step 1: Assembly of the Advisory Committee

In the fall of your second year for PhD students or the first graduate year for dual degree students (MD/PhD and DMD/PhD programs), assemble the Advisory Committee consisting of five members (see above).

Step 2: Hold the Specific Aim meeting

The topic of the general exam proposal is typically based on the student’s thesis research project, but can also be other closely related topics. A few months before the end of the first academic year, the student should hold a “Specific Aim Meeting” with the Advisory Committee. The student writes a one-page document on the specific aims (details in Step 3 below), and submits it to the Advisory Committee at least three days before the meeting day. At the meeting, committee members will evaluate the content of the written Specific Aims and informally examine the student’s readiness for writing a formal proposal. If not approved, the student will be asked to revise the specific aims based on the critiques provided by the Advisory Committee. Based on feedback, the student will submit a revised copy of the specific aims. Once specific aims have been agreed upon by the student and the committee, the student will enter a 4-week period to write a formal NIH F32 Fellowship-Style proposal.

Step 3: Written Exam

While it is expected that the major advisor and student will have had extensive discussions regarding the student’s thesis project prior to the general examination, the major advisor should not directly assist the student in preparing the written proposal. However, you can still ask specific questions of your committee members, your advisor, or other students during the preparation. Once you have submitted your written proposal to your committee, you are welcome to share this document with other students and lab members to prepare for the oral exam. NIH’s grant writing tips are found here.

     Specific Aims (1 page): This page should present a central hypothesis, the rationale supporting it, the significance and novelty of the proposed research, and a concise overview of the experimental approaches to be used. The Specific Aims page is intended to inform the reviewers (in this case, the advisory committee) of the overall scope and objectives of the research project. While there is no strict requirement on the number of Specific Aims, most fellowship applications typically include two or three well-defined aims. The proposed work should be feasible to complete within 3 year timeframe.

     Research Strategy (up to 6 pages): Organize the Research Strategy in the specified order and using the instructions provided below. Start each section with the appropriate section heading: Significance, Innovation, Approach.

     (a) Significance: This section should highlight why the proposed studies will advance scientific knowledge and/or clinical application in a major way. This section is also an appropriate place to include background information, which illustrates the current state of the knowledge and areas that need to be improved through additional research.

     (b) Innovation: Explain why the proposed research may lead to paradigm-shifting concepts, novel technologies, and/or innovative clinical applications, rather than incremental progress or minor improvement of the current state of knowledge.

     (c) Approach: This section may be divided into two subsections, including Preliminary Studies and Experimental Designs and Methods. Alternatively, Preliminary Data may be embedded into the Experimental Designs and Methods sections where appropriate.

     (d) Milestones:
At the end of the Research Strategy section, include a description of anticipated timelines for the accomplishment of various experiments. A table or scheme with time indicated in years will be helpful.

     References (no page limit)

Step 4: Oral Examination

Students should arrange the date and time with the committee for the examination lasting approximately 2 hours. The student should prepare a slide presentation of approximately 30 minutes in length that covers all the pertinent details of the written proposal and any specifics that would help the committee understand the rationale, experiments performed, and the expected outcomes. The committee will interrupt the presentation with questions throughout.

After all participants have arrived, the Committee chair will ask the student to leave the room for a few minutes. During that time, the Advisory Committee will evaluate the quality of the written proposal and the student’s general qualifications (such as completion of required course credits), identifying any major deficiencies that may be further addressed during the exam. If the proposal and overall qualification are deemed acceptable, the student will be asked back into the room, and an oral exam will proceed. If the proposal and/or general qualification are unacceptable, the student will be given a defined amount of time to revise the proposal or take any other necessary actions, such as taking an additional course. After this discussion, the student will be invited to return to the room.

The chair should explain the ground rules to the student and ask the student to begin the presentation. If questioning is slow in getting started, the committee chair should lead off, preferably with a question that the student should be able to answer comfortably. The chair should then turn over the questioning to one of the other examiners. One role of the program director or assistant director is to ensure that the exam is administered fairly and that all exams are administered in a uniform fashion.

Exam questions should be designed to probe the student’s depth of knowledge on the chosen subject of the proposal, both theoretical and technical. In addition, exam questions should determine the student’s general knowledge of Cell and Developmental Biology and closely related fields of their research topic. When the chair feels that the student has been examined sufficiently, he/she will ask the student to leave the room while the committee discusses the performance. Each student’s performance should be evaluated in four areas: 1) quality of the written proposal, 2) quality of the oral presentation, 3) defense of the proposal, and 4) general knowledge. The student will then be asked to re-enter the room and told the outcome of the exam.

General rules and committee roles

  1. The major advisor and all members of the advisory committee must participate in the exam.
  2. The AoC Leadership member shall serve as the chair of the General Exam Committee. It is their responsibility to ensure that the exam process fulfils the requirements of the Graduate School, the Biomedical Science program, and the AoC.
  3. The major advisor must attend the exam and may participate in the discussions and post-exam evaluation. However, they must remain silent during the actual direct oral examination of the student, unless directly called upon by the chair of the General Exam Committee to clarify a point of confusion or provide necessary context.

Possible outcomes

Pass: Students who have seriously engaged in their research and course studies in the first two years and have made sufficient efforts to prepare for the exam are expected to pass. Passing the preliminary exam allows the student to formally be a candidate for a Ph.D. in Biomedical Science and to continue working on research that will lead to a Ph.D. degree.

Conditional Pass: If the overall performance is marginal or a major deficiency is identified such as in the quality of proposal writing or certain areas of background knowledge, the Advisory Committee and the Examiners may agree to give the student a conditional pass. The Committee Chair should inform the student both verbally and in writing the specific issues that need to be addressed to achieve a full pass status. Deadlines to accomplish these tasks should be explicitly stated. Ways of addressing major deficiencies may include but are not limited to significant revision of the proposal, taking a course, and/or re-take the oral exam if necessary. The specific requirements should be documented in writing in an explicit and unambiguous manner. The student may be given a pass if the specified tasks are accomplished before the deadline. However, failure to do so may lead to an eventual fail grade.

Failure: A failing grade can result from an unacceptable proposal or poor performance in multiple aspects of the presentation and oral exam.  A student who fails may be given a second chance to rewrite the proposal and/or another oral examination. The Committee should specify the deadline for the next proposal submission and/or oral exam. A student who fails the exam twice must be dismissed from the program.

Result Reporting

 

The result of the exam will be documented in the Report on the General Examination form for the Doctoral Degree form (found on the UConn Graduate School Forms page under “Forms For Enrolled Doctoral Students”), which all members of the Advisory Committee and the Examiners must sign. The signed form must be submitted to registrar@uconn.edu, with one copy submitted to the AoC Director for records.  Additionally, please inform the director of the Cell Bio AoC of the results of your examination.

Candidacy and Thesis Prospectus

Upon passing the General Examination, the student becomes a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and is expected to devote full-time to the completion of their dissertation. The student must complete a Doctoral Dissertation Proposal form (found on the UConn Graduate School Forms page under “Forms For Enrolled Doctoral Students”).  The Doctoral Dissertation Proposal must be submitted and approved by the Candidate’s Advisory Committee and then filed with the UConn Registrar’s Office (registrar@uconn.edu). It is a requirement of the University of Connecticut Graduate School that this be submitted and on file prior to the Public Defense.  It is essential to inform the director of the CB AoC when this form has been filed.

Thesis

When the Advisory Committee reaches a consensus that the student has achieved sufficient research accomplishment, it will authorize the final preparation of the thesis. The thesis must be formatted in accordance to rules of the Graduate School as summarized in the Steps to a Successful Graduation under “Dissertation Information: Dissertation Specifications.” Research-related content may be written in the manuscript format suitable for publication, but with expanded sections of Introduction and Discussion. The introduction consists of a scholarly and critical review of the current status of the field, rationale for the hypothesis, ending with one or two sentences summarizing major conclusions. Material and Methods section should be sufficiently detailed and accurate to allow replication of the work by any trained researchers or future graduate students. The Discussion section should not simply re-state the results. This section should emphasize on the relationship of the current work to the existing literature, discussing the significance of the findings, and limitations of the data, as well as future directions.  The Thesis must be approved by the Advisory Committee and the Examiners before scheduling the Closed (Private) Oral Examination of the thesis.

Closed Thesis Oral Examination (Private Defense)

At least two weeks prior to a Closed Thesis Oral Examination, the completed thesis is submitted to all members of the Advisory Committee and the Examiners. Closed Oral Examination must occur at least two weeks before the Public Defense due to the time needed to schedule the Public Defense following the closed oral examination. All members of the Advisory Committee, Examiners, and one member of the CB AoC executive committee must be present at the closed oral examination. The role of the CB AoC Executive Committee member is to ensure that the examination procedure is consistent with CB AoC and graduate school policies. However, the AoC executive committee member does not participate in other aspects of the exam and does not vote.

The closed oral exam will be conducted in the following manner:

  1. After all participants have arrived, the student will be asked to leave the room for a few minutes.  The chair of the committee will preside over the closed oral exam.  The chair cannot be the student’s major advisor and must be an Associate Professor or Professor in the CB AoC.  The Committee and the Examiners will briefly review the quality of the thesis.
  2. If the Committee agrees that the thesis is of sufficient quality for presentation, the student will be invited back into the room to present the thesis. The presentation may be interrupted with questions. The chair of the committee should monitor the process so that the presentation and question session are complete in about 2 hours. To successfully pass the exam, students should demonstrate the ability to 1) present the data in a logical fashion, 2) analyze the data critically, 3) take a broad view of the problem, and 4) thoroughly understand the technical aspects of his/her research. Following approximately 2 hours of presentation and questions and responses, the student will be asked to leave the room, and the Committee will evaluate the student’s performance in their absence.
  3. The student will be evaluated based on the quality of the oral presentation, responses to questions, and general knowledge and ability to logically analyze problems. The student passes the Private Defense only if all of the Committee members approve the thesis and Oral Exam. If any Thesis Advisory Committee member fails to approve the thesis and/or Closed Oral Examination, the Advisory Committee and the Examiners will decide on an appropriate course of action without the student being present.
  4. Once a decision has been made, the student will be admitted back into the room, and informed of the decision. If the student does not pass the Private Defense, the student will be informed of all the necessary actions that need to be taken to achieve a pass status. Such information must be documented in writing to avoid any subsequent confusion and misunderstanding. The student may be given a pass grade only if all the assigned tasks are accomplished. Once the student passes the Private Defense, then the Public Defense may be scheduled.

Public Thesis Defense/Oral Examination

The Public Defense should be scheduled to take place at least two weeks after the Graduate School announces the event. For this reason, the student must contact the graduate school to schedule the Public defense as soon as he/she pass the Private Defense to minimize delays. The Chair of the Advisory Committee will chair the Public Thesis Defense. Faculty members who are required to attend the Public Defense include: at least three members of the Advisory Committee, and a member of the CB AoC executive committee should be present. The presentation will be in the format of a formal seminar, and is generally not interrupted during presentation, although minor exceptions may be granted. After the seminar, the student will answer any question from the audience.

Students must submit the online Defense and Final Thesis/Dissertation Approval form (found on the UConn Graduate School Forms page under “Forms For Enrolled Doctoral Students”), which will be electronically sent to the Advisory Committee members for their signatures and submission to the UConn Registrar’s Office.

rev. 6/25