Ph.D. Program
Course requirements for Ph.D. or M.S.
Students must take a minimum of nine medical school courses a divided into three general categories (see below) and register for exactly 10 units each quarter. Students must earn a minimum grade of B- in all nine courses and maintain at least a B average for continuation in the program.
Category I: Core Requirements
- GENE 203 (Advanced Genetics, Fall, 4 units)
- GENE 215 (Frontiers, Fall, 1 unit)
- GENE 222 (Methods & Logic, Winter, 3 units)
- GENE 255 (The Responsible Conduct of Research, Winter, 1 units)
- STAT 141 (Biostatistics, Fall, 4 units)
Category II: Genetics Electives
At least one of the following:
- GENE 211 (Genomics, Winter, 3 units)
- BMI 214 (Representations and Algorithms for Computational Molecular Biology, Spring, 4 units)
- GENE 262 (Advanced Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Spring, 4 units)
Category III: Other Electives
- BIOCHEM 241 (Biological Macromolecules, Fall, 3 units)
- MCP 221 (Cell Biology, Winter, 5 units)
- MPHA 210 (Signal Transduction Pathways and Networks, Winter, 4 units)
- DBIO 210 (Developmental Biology, Spring, 5 units)
- MCP 256 (Molecular Physiology of Cells, Spring, 4 units)
- GENE 233 (Biology of Small Modulatory RNAs, Fall, 2 units)
- GENE 235 (C. elegans Genetics, Spring, 2 units, alterative years)
Courses outside the medical school (e.g., CS, Stat) are encouraged, but can only be applied to the minimum requirement of nine courses with permission from the Graduate Program Directors. The statistics requirement counts towards the minimum of nine courses. Students may petition the Graduate Program Directors to receive approval for any courses, including statistics, that have been completed elsewhere and that may substitute for required courses in the Department of Genetics Graduate Program, but such students must still take nine courses.
Possible first year curriculum
Fall
- GENE 203 (Advanced Genetics)
- GENE 215 (Frontiers)
- STAT 141 or BIOCHEM 241 (Biostats)
Winter
- GENE 222 (Methods & Logic)
- GENE 255 (The Responsible Conduct of Research)
- GENE 211 (Genomics)
Spring (pick and choose)
- GENE 262
- BMI 214
- DBIO 210
- MCP 256
- Or other electives
Department Key
- BIOCHEM = Biochemistry
- BIO = Biological Sciences
- BMI = Biomedical Informatics
- DBIO = Developmental Biology
- GENE = Genetics
- MCP = Molecular and Cellular Physiology
- MPHA = Molecular Pharmacology
- STAT = Statistics

