Making sense of the ever-increasing amount and scope of
biological information--at levels of complexity ranging from individual
molecules and molecular assemblies to cells and larger systems--requires
sophisticated mathematical and computational tools and concepts outside the
realm of mainstream biology. The graduate program in quantitative biomedicine
seeks to train a new generation of scientists to use these tools and concepts
to achieve a new level of understanding of biology. The graduate program is administered under the umbrella of the Institute for Quantitative
Biomedicine, the goal of which is to foster interdisciplinary research and
education at the interface between quantitative and biological sciences. The institute
faculty has been built on a critical mass of prominent investigators in
structural biology, systems biology, and bioinformatics. A major goal of the
collaborative environment is to promote interaction between and among these
areas.
The graduate program's curriculum, course prerequisites, and
admission requirements have been designed to serve the needs of students with
diverse backgrounds, particularly those with quantitative training in the
physical, mathematical, engineering, and computer sciences. The program allows
the enrollment of interdisciplinary students who demonstrate a strong interest
and aptitude for interdisciplinary biology research.
The curriculum of the graduate program in quantitative biomedicine involves three types of courses: background courses, core courses,
and electives.Background Courses. Students
with a limited background in an area of interdisciplinary biomedical
research may be required to take one or more specific undergraduate or
first-year graduate courses. In general, these requirements will be decided by the graduate program director or the associate director of graduate studies and the student's thesis adviser. The
specific options for students with a limited background in biology
and/or chemistry are outlined in the catalog section Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree.
Required Courses. These
are specifically selected interdisciplinary courses that survey
particular areas critical to a working knowledge of quantitative biology and are meant to transition students into research at the forefront of the
field. These courses cover a broad range of topics and can be categorized into four general fields:
physics and chemistry of living matter, computation and statistics in biology,
quantitative modeling in biology, as well as a course in molecular medicine,
participation in the program's two-week immersive Interdisciplinary
Quantitative Biology Boot Camp, and a course in ethical scientific conduct.
Electives. Students may select electives that complement the program requirements and provide added understanding pertinent to the student's research area of study. This choice can made from virtually all graduate courses offered by
life science, mathematical and physical sciences, computer science, and
engineering programs at Rutgers, including biochemistry,
biomedical engineering, cell and developmental biology, chemical and
biochemical engineering, chemistry and chemical biology, computer
science, mathematics, mechanical and aerospace engineering, mechanics,
microbiology and molecular genetics, cellular and molecular
pharmacology, physics and astronomy, and statistics.
