Curriculum and Handbooks
Our curriculum, combined with research and rotation opportunities, provide a flexible educational opportunity for doctoral students to specialize in the broad subject of translational medicine while emphasizing doctoral research leading to fundamental discoveries in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. The SCBRM doctoral program provides an avenue for graduate education to merge cutting edge basic research with clinical application.
The mission of the SCBRM graduate program is to produce future leaders in translational science through a combination of basic science and clinical/professional immersion. Our innovative program changes the landscape of graduate education in the biomedical sciences by tailoring the professional immersion to each student's translational goals. The program will appeal to students who wish to focus primarily at the basic science level as well as 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 a more clinically or engineering focused mentor.
All students, regardless of their career goals, will enroll in the unique SCBRM core courses STEMREM 201, 202, 203 - as well as the SCBRM Regenerative Medicine weekly seminar series (REMS). These courses provide the unique material required for a firm foundation in SCBRM. STEMREM 201 is a unique offering that combines didactic lectures with comprehensive laboratory-based instruction in the derivation of human pluripotent stem cells, human embryology and development, cell sorting, imaging and other fundamental topics in human development. This course will provide the educational foundation, hands-on skill development and social group building within each first-year class of students. STEMREM 202 partners leaders in the basic sciences with leaders in clinical application to provide didactic instruction in the fundamentals of SCBRM including, molecular pathways of pluripotency and differentiation to tissue-specific stem cells, cancer stem cells, and the application of stem cell technologies in the study and treatment of human disease. STEMREM 203 provides a clinical or professional immersion and provides training and insights into the world of medicine, law, business, or pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry from multiple vantage points. The immersion is tailored to each student's career goals and sets the stage for the student to translate research successfully beyond the academic sphere.
All aspects of the curriculum and research are conducted in a supportive and rigorous scientific environment with the intention that students are expected to maximize their scientific potential and contribute to future healthcare applications.