Graduate School Policies and Procedures apply to this program.

Graduate Program Director: Brian Buma
E-mail:  Brian.Buma@ucdenver.edu
Graduate Program Coordinator: Ginny Ware
E-mail: Virginia.Ware@ucdenver.edu
Website: https://clas.ucdenver.edu/integrative-biology/academics/graduate-programs

Introduction

The PhD program in Integrative and Systems Biology at the University of Colorado Denver is a multidisciplinary, dual campus program that offers students opportunities to address complex questions in biology using computational, laboratory and field approaches. The more than 40 program faculty members allow students to participate on a diversity of projects at all levels of biological organization, ranging from ecology and environmental microbiology to biochemistry, developmental biology and neuroscience. Depending on the track an incoming student chooses, the approach will either be to explore the problem at multiple levels of biological organization (integrative biology) or to explore the multi-component nature of a biological system (systems biology).

The PhD program is research-based. Applicants to the program must have a declared area of specialization that aligns with the research focus of a program graduate faculty member. Faculty expertise can be found undergraduate faculty profiles on the Department of Integrative Biology website (clas.ucdenver.edu/biology/). Students must contact prospective faculty advisors to determine if openings are available within the faculty member’s research group.

Program Requirements

---

The PhD degree requirements comprise six phases. First, students must complete a minimum of 60 credits, including 30 dissertation credits. Up to 30 hours of graduate level courses from other programs may be transferred and counted toward the degree. Students must also pass the Preliminary Exam, form an Advisory Committee and an Examination Committee, meet the academic residency requirement, pass the comprehensive exam, and write and orally defend a dissertation. Students must earn a minimum grade of B- (2.7) in all courses taken at CU Denver and must achieve a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0. All graded attempts in required and elective courses are calculated in the GPA. Students cannot complete course requirements as pass/fail.

Research-based PhD degree program requires

1. Completing 60 credits including 30 of dissertation (BIOL 8990 Doctoral Dissertation)
2. Meeting minimum academic residency requirements
3. Passing the Preliminary Exam
4. Forming Advisory and Examination committees
5. Writing and defending research proposal
6. Passing the Comprehensive Exam
7. Writing and defending dissertation (including >1 publishable unit)

Required Courses

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Take all of the following		16-18
BIOL 6002	Biology Skills Sets - Pedagogy (taken in the first year; only required for students supported by a Graduate Teaching Assistantship)	2
BIOL 6655	Seminar (taken two different times in the student's career)	2
BIOL 6705	Biological Research Workshop (taken two different times in the student's career)	4
BIOL 6764	Biological Data Analysis (taken in the first year)	4
BIOL 7010	Integrative and Systems Biology (taken in the first year)	3
BIOL 7050	Special Topics (a minimum of 3 credits must be completed, but students may take up to 9 credits)	3

Electives 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Students should complete a minimum of 12 credits from graduate level Biology coursework.		12

Dissertation

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Complete after passing the Comprehensive Exam		30
BIOL 8990	Doctoral Dissertation	1-10
30 total credit hours to be completed

To learn more about the Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website.