UofC • This Is Now

Location

Health Sciences Centre, Room G 321

Faculty number

(403) 220-8306

Fax

(403) 210-8109

E-mail address

bmbgrad@ucalgary.ca

Web page URL

http://www.ucalgary.ca/bmb

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Master of Science (MSc)

Faculty members in the Department are affiliated with ten Research Groups: Bacterial Pathogenesis; Cancer Biology; Cardiovascular; Diabetes and Endocrinology; Genes and Development; Immunology; Joint Injury and Arthritis; Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology; Population Genomics; and Smooth Muscle.

All students will have the specialization "Biochemistry and Molecular Biology."

Combined MD/Master's and MD/PhD programs are offered under the title "Leaders in Medicine."

In addition to Faculty of Graduate Studies requirements, the Department requires:

(a)A minimum admission grade point average of 3.2 on a four point scale

(b)For applicants required to provide proof of proficiency in English, a minimum TOEFL score of 600 (written), 250 (computer-based) or 100 (internet-based) or an IELTS score of 7.50

(c)Although Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) are not required, submission of scores is encouraged, particularly for international applicants. A competitive GRE score has usually been above the 90thpercentile

Deadlines for submission of complete applications for students with international transcripts:

15 May for September admission

15 September for January admission

15 January for May admission

Deadlines for submission of complete applications for students with Canadian or U.S. transcripts:

15 June for September admission

15 October for January admission

15 March for May admission

Students applying to the MD/Master's or MD/PhD program must also apply to the Leaders in Medicine program by completing a supplementary application.

Advanced credit requests must be made by the applicant as part of the admission process. Any credit to be given for courses completed will be included in the departmental letter recommending the student's admission to the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

In addition to Faculty requirements, an interim supervisory committee will determine the courses required for each student, based on the student's previous academic background and proposed area of research. In general, Master's students will be required to take at least two graduate level half-courses and doctoral students will be required to take at least three graduate level half-courses.

Each student is required to participate regularly in journal club and work-in-progress seminar programs administered by the Research Group to which the student and his/her supervisor belong, and the student will present at least one journal club seminar and one work-in-progress presentation per year.

Attendance at a Research Integrity Day workshop is required for all graduate students. Consult the program website for details.

Courses at the 500-level are not usually considered graduate courses. Students should register in 500-level courses only upon the recommendation of their supervisory committee. Credit will be given for 500-level courses appropriate to a student's program as long as an equal or greater number of courses at the 600-level or above is included in the program.

Maximum completion time is four years for the Master of Science degree and six years for the Doctor of Philosophy degree.

Leaders in Medicine- Maximum completion time is six years for the MD/Master's program, and eight years for the MD/PhD program.

The Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate Program has a rotation program that may last up to six months. This allows the graduate student and the potential supervisor to learn more about each other's research interests and available research projects. The student will spend two months in each laboratory of up to three faculty members. After the rotation program, the student will select a permanent supervisor. Alternatively, a student may begin the program with a permanent supervisor, if such arrangements have been made prior to arrival.

A supervisor and permanent supervisory committee must be selected before registration for the second year.

Supervisory committees are required for both Master's and doctoral students in the BMB Graduate Program.

Students in the Leaders in Medicine program must have a supervisory committee constituted according to the regulations of the graduate program. In addition, these students are monitored by a Joint Liaison Committee of the Leaders in Medicine program.

The doctoral candidacy examination has both a written and an oral component and is designed to test general and specific knowledge about various aspects of biochemistry and molecular biology. Examination questions (usually four) will be given to the student four weeks before the oral examination. The student will prepare a written paper for two of the examination questions and submit the two papers to all examiners one week before the oral examination. The supervisor is a non-voting observer at the doctoral candidacy examination.

Final oral examinations are closed. Doctoral students are required to present a public thesis seminar close to the time of the thesis defence.

Each student must prepare a research proposal within twelve months of initial registration (sixteen months for rotation students). The research proposal will be presented and defended before the supervisory committee.

None

All students who are accepted into the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate Program will receive a minimum stipend ($18,000 for MSc students and $20,000 for doctoral students, as of September 2004). Students are encouraged to apply to external agencies for financial assistance from scholarships or studentships. Some of these awards provide stipends in excess of the program minimum. Information on awards can be obtained from the office of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate Program. Students applying for University scholarships must submit their applications to the Department by 1 February.

Descriptions of courses with biochemistry and molecular biology content at the University of Calgary are included under Biochemistry (BCEM), Cellular, Molecular and Microbial Biology (CMMB) and Medical Science (MDSC) listings elsewhere in the Calendar. Relevant courses for the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology graduate program include:

500-level Courses- Courses at the 500-level are not usually considered graduate courses. Students should register in 500-level courses only upon the recommendation of the supervisory committee.

BCEM 543 Enzymology

BCEM 547 Regulation of Metabolism and Signal Transduction

BCEM 551 Structural Biology

BCEM 555 BioMembranes

CMMB 505 Advanced Developmental Biology

CMMB 511 Molecular Biology and Genetics

CMMB 519 Advanced Cell Biology

CMMB 523 DNA, Genomes and RNA Function

CMMB 533 Advanced Eukaryotic Genetics

CMMB 549 Microbial Genetics

MDSC 501 Principles and Mechanisms of Pharmacology

MDSC 503 Pharmacology of Organ Systems

MDSC 515 Cellular Mechanisms of Disease (BIOL 515)

MDSC 537 Nucleic Acids (BCEM 537)

MDSC 561 Cancer Biology (CMMB 561)

ZOOL 597 Principles of Endocrinology

Graduate-level Courses

BCEM 731 Protein and Metabolic Engineering

MDSC 603 Biological Laboratory Animals (BIOL 603)

MDSC 604 Integrative Human Physiology

MDSC 605 Information Storage and Processing in Biological Systems (CPSC 605)

MDSC 609.01 Gene Structure and Regulation of Transcription (BCEM 609.01)

MDSC 609.02 Genes and Development (BCEM 609.02)

MDSC 613.05 Regulation of Gene Expression in Bacteria

MDSC 615 Biomembranes

MDSC 619.01 Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

MDSC 619.03 Developmental Neuroscience

MDSC 621.01 Basic Principles of Pharmacology

MDSC 631 Muscle Physiology

MDSC 639.01 Principles of Immunology

MDSC 639.02 Cellular and Molecular Immunology

MDSC 641.01 Advanced Genetics

MDSC 641.04 Genomics

MDSC 643 Biostatistics I and II

MDSC 671 Techniques in Medical Science

MDSC 675 Bioinformatics Resources for the Biologist

MDSC 683.01 Introduction to Cancer Biology

MDSC 683.02 Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer

MDSC 683.04 Molecular Cell Biology

MDSC 717 Functional Genomics Technologies

MDSC 751.02 Cellular and Molecular Pathogenic Mechanisms of Diabetes

MDSC 751.09 Ion Channel Diseases

MDSC 751.15 Receptors

MDSC 755.03 Introduction to Functional Genomics

For further information on graduate program application and admission, consult the department website at: http://www.ucalgary.ca/bmb/.

Research interests of the Groups can be found on the department website at http://www. ucalgary.ca/bmb/facultymembers/faculty.html