Overview

The Molecular Biology Program is dedicated to providing rigorous training to its students in a supportive environment. Molecular Biology faculty are members of many different departments and are applying the techniques of molecular biology to answer questions in diverse areas. Molecular biology, the science of how living things work at the molecular level, has led the recent revolution in our understanding of human disease and gave birth to the biotechnology industry. In almost all aspects of modern biomedical research, a professional knowledge of molecular biology is essential. Our training program is designed to equip students for careers at the cutting edge of biology.

Admissions Requirements

To apply for admission applicants must submit the following:

• Online Graduate School application
  • Personal Statement
  • Research Experience explanation (more in-depth than what is provided in resume requirement)
  • Resume: The applicant’s current resume or curriculum vitae, including professional work/practice since graduating with a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent).
  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement
  • Three recommendations: to be completed by people who know your professional, academic and/or personal achievements or qualities well. As such, references must be from professional contacts, such as employers, supervisors, former faculty, preceptors, or professional colleagues.
  • Official Transcripts from all post-secondary colleges and/or universities attended by the applicant.
• Application Fee: A nonrefundable application fee of $50.00 (U.S. dollars). Checks or money orders should be made out to the University of Colorado.
• Interview: If selected, candidates will be contacted to attend a recruitment weekend, including interviewing with current MOLB Faculty and Students.
• Transcripts: Official transcripts from all post-secondary colleges and/or universities should be sent directly to:

University of Colorado Denver Graduate Admissions
Campus Box 163
PO Box 173364
Denver, CO 80217-3364

OR Electronic Transcripts should be sent to: graduateadmissions@ucdenver.edu

International students must meet ALL of the requirements above and those required by International Admissions. 

Degree Requirements

First Year

Second Year

Third Year & Beyond

Learning Objectives

The MOLB Program has defined five objectives that convey our approach to research and professional training:

Objective 1 is to provide broad training in foundational molecular and cellular biology with focused research opportunities in diverse disciplines (e.g., bioinformatics, cell biology, cancer biology, developmental biology, epigenetics, immunology, microbiology, RNA biology, and structural biology). Our broad interdisciplinary training is key to the success of our trainees and a defining feature of MOLB relative to other AMC training programs. The scientific breadth of our faculty exposes our trainees to many different techniques and provides opportunities for students to combine different approaches to answer their own scientific questions. We cultivate a collegial environment across the program, encouraging intellectual exchange and collaboration between labs from many departments and measure our success by the number and quality of research publications produced by our trainees and the number of external grants that they are awarded based on their research.

Objective 2 is to provide student-oriented and well-balanced training that emphasizes development of creative and independent thinking, strong communication skills, and professional responsible conduct. A key to MOLB training is its focus on developing professional skills including teamwork, science communication, project management, and leadership. The MOLB Program incorporates many technical, operational, and professional elements to provide balanced training for our students.

Objective 3 is to develop and apply the newest techniques that drive advances in science. As the late Sydney Brenner articulated, “Progress in science depends on new techniques, new discoveries, and new ideas, probably in that order.” A primary objective of the MOLB Program is to position our graduates to lead the forefront of scientific technology deployment and development. We develop scientists who are well-versed in existing scientific techniques and capable of developing their own experimental approaches to answer new questions. We combine rigorous “wet” and “dry” laboratory training, intensive discussion of current literature, workshops, and mini-courses that focus on emerging techniques for molecular and cell biology research, and we measure our success by our trainees’ performance in preliminary and comprehensive examinations, and laboratory research.

Objective 4 is to create and sustain an inclusive and diverse research training environment. We value diversity in our program and the scientific community, and developed several approaches to increase the cultural, racial, and social diversity in the MOLB Program. Some of these include MOLB-specific recruitment and retention strategies and diversity training for our faculty and students.

Objective 5 is to promote the career advancement of our trainees and introduce them to a broad range of career choices. The MOLB program provides skills and opportunities for experiential learning needed to succeed in many science-related careers, including academic research, consulting, teaching, government and public policy, technology transfer and patent law, science writing, and science communication, and measure our success by the diversity of science-related careers that our trainees pursue.

Courses

Policies

Please refer to the Graduate School Policies page.

Program Calendar

MOLB still requires three lab rotations in a student’s first year in the program, but the dates associated with the MOLB lab rotations differ from the other Basic Science PhD programs and the Graduate School Academic Calendar.

• The first rotation will start in the third week of October (for 2020 this will be October 19th) and will end on December 18th, just before end of the year holidays.
• Trainees will get one week off for Thanksgiving Holidays (extra week included for that).
• Second rotation would start second week of January (for 2021 will be January 11th) and will end on first week of March (for 2021 will be March 5th).

• Third rotation would start on second week of March (for 2021 will be March 8th) and end first week of May (for 2021 will be May 7th). The third rotation also includes and extra week for Spring Break. The MOLB 7800 course will be adjusted so it ends one week after the end of third rotation, mostly to allow students to focus completing and turning in their final MOLB 7800 projects.

Contact Us

Rytis Prekeris, Ph.D.
Program Director
rytis.prekeris@cuanschutz.edu
www.prekerislab.com
@prekerislab

Sabrena Heilman
Program Administrator
sabrena.heilman@cuanschutz.edu | 303.724.3245

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
12801 E 17th Avenue
Mail Stop 8116
Aurora, CO 80045