About Our Graduate Programs

PhD & MS Programs

Students enrolled in the MS program typically take two to three years to complete the requirements. Students typically require five to six years to complete the requirements to obtain a PhD degree.

Course of Study

The bulk of the didactic work is completed by the end of the first year. Graduate training begins with a common fall semester program required of all first year graduate students. This includes core courses in cellular and molecular biology that provide foundational material in a literature-based format for more advanced study in the spring and in subsequent years. During the first semester, students also take a biomedical sciences colloquium that involves in-depth discussions of current literature that are complementary to course lectures.

During the spring semester, students take an introductory courses in immunology, microbiology, and virology. They also participate in weekly meetings where they present research papers and the results of their ongoing thesis work. In the second and third years, students select a series of advanced courses consistent with their thesis research.

After Graduation

Graduates of our program go on to work or study in various careers related to immunology and microbial disease.

Here is just a small sample of what some of our recent grads are doing:

• Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh
• Scientific Program Manager, Oregon Health Sciences University, Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute
• Laboratory Manager, Chicago Medical School
• NASA Support Scientist
• Research Fellow, Boston Children's Hospital
• Director of Complex Spine, University of Missouri School of Medicine
• Postdoctoral Fellow, UMass Medical School
• Principal Scientist, Merck & Co., West Point, Penn.
• Postdoctoral Fellow, The Pulmonary Center, Boston University
• Chief Scientific Investigator, Harvard Medical School