PhD Course Descriptions
Advanced Immunology
Course Description: This course covers the current state of knowledge of immunology, with a focus on recent research advances. Topics covered include innate immunity, T-cell and B-cell development, antigen processing and presentation, immune regulation and tolerance, vaccine immunology and tumor immunology, with a focus on both normal functioning and perturbations causes by or resulting in disease.
Prerequisite: Previous course in Immunology
Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, Study Design
Course Description: This course covers descriptive statistics, exploratory and graphical methods, probability, probability distributions, sampling methods, estimation, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, sample size and power, linear regression and correlation, design of experiments, data transformations, logistic regression, survival analysis, design of case-control and cohort studies, design of clinical trials, data management and use of large data sets, statistical issues in diagnostic testing and screening, and an introduction to SAS statistical softwareÂ
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to design studies appropriately, analyze data, work productively with a biostatistician on complex analyses, and assess the appropriate use of statistics in published papers.
Clinical Research Design
Course Description: Topics cover issues in clinical research studies, including control populations, clinical trial designs, use of surrogate endpoints and epidemiology. Major emphasis will be place on the advantages and disadvantages of particular study designs and the rationale for using a specific design for a specific study. Students will be required to design a small study, relevant to their dissertation topic and will be encouraged to initiate the study through General Clinical Research Center subsequent to completion of the course.
Critical Readings
Course Description: A review, in depth, of seminal papers that have transformed clinical medicine. A particular focus will be on those basic science and clinical papers that have not only significantly impacted diagnosis, treatment or prevention of a specific disease or disorder, but have caused paradigm shifts that cross medical disciplines. Students will select papers in consultation with the faculty, and then present them for analysis of the papers themselves as well as disuses their impact on medicine.
Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this course
Current Topics in Translation Research
Course Description: This course consists of preparatory reading related to selected diseases or disorders, introductory discussions of the selected disorders led by faculty of the department of molecular medicine, lectures on the disorders by invited outside experts in the diseases and molecular medicine, lectures on the disorders by invited outside experts in the diseases and a discussion group meeting of the students with the invited lecturer. The material covers molecular pathophysiology, genetics, biochemistry, molecular basis for standard and experimental therapies and physiology. Typical diseases to be discussed are: chronic lymphocytic leukemia, sepsis, metastatic cancer, and Parkinson's disease.
After completion of the course, the student should have a better understanding of the multiple components of any disease process that impact on the clinical presentation, including function/non-function of organ systems, tissues, cells and subcellular organelles.
Ethics and Responsible Conduct of Research
Course Description: The purpose of this course is to provide young scientists and physician-scientists with clear guidelines for ethical decisions that might and do occur in research. It covers the historical framework for a need for ethical standards in research, changing concepts in research ethics with time, current regulatory requirements for animal or human research, guidelines for appropriate authorship decisions, peer review, collaborative research, ownership of data and intellectual property, scientific record keeping conflicts of interest, scientific misconduct, and ethical dilemmas in basic and clinical research.
This course is required of all graduate students. There are no prerequisites.
Independent Research
Course Description: Students will conduct independent dissertation research under the guidance of a mentor, culminating in the preparation and defense of a thesis.
Students should gain proficiency in designing and executing experiments, analyzing data, and preparing scientific abstracts for presentation and manuscripts for publication.
Molecular Biology of the Cell
Course Description: This course provides advanced graduate-level coverage of the molecular basis of cell function that can serve as the basis for understanding cellular disorders in various disease processes. Topics covered include macromolecular structure and synthesis (DNA, RNA, proteins and lipids), regulation of gene expression, basics of signal transduction, the cell cycle, programmed cell death, regulation of cell shape and motility, cell-cell communication, membrane biochemistry and intracellular trafficking.
Upon completion, students should have a base of current advanced understanding of cell and molecular biology, and be able to apply that knowledge as appropriate to their research interests, and be able to critically read papers in the current literature.
Molecular Genetics of the Cell
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Course Description: Topics covered in this course include chromosome and gene structure, concepts and methodologies in genetic analysis, discussion of simple vs. complex traits use of animal models for genetic analysis, and new paradigms in genetics.
Prerequisite: A previous course in genetics
Molecular Medicine Journal Club
Course Description: Students and faculty analyze, in depth, a current highly significant publication related to translational research. Papers are selected and presented by students, with discussion by all attending.
Students should gain proficiency in critical readings of papers, ability to identify significant research findings and familiarity with the advantages and limitations of the methodology described in the publication.
Research Methodologies
Course Description: This course will analyze and compare current research model systems and methodologies, including discussion of advantages and limitations of each. Model systems discussed include cell-based and organotypic cultures (animal and human) and different types of whole animal models (e.g. rodents, zebra fish, invertebrates). Included in the discussion is the use of mutant and transgenic animals. Methodologies covered include chromatin immunopreciptation (ChIP), signal transduction pathway analyses, immunological-based assays, SNIP genotyping, microarrays and qPCR, techniques and siRNA knockdown.
Seminars in Investigative Medicine
Course Description: This seminar meets weekly on an ongoing basis. The purpose of the program is to provide current state-of-the-art knowledge of biomedical research. Each session consists of a research seminar by an invited scientist who is a recognized expert in his/her respective field, followed by a question and answer period. Topics vary, with guest speakers invited by faculty in the department of molecular medicine and investigators in the Feinstein Institute.
Work-In-Progress Seminars
Course Description: Each session consists of two presentations of current research, given by faculty in the Department of Molecular Medicine and investigators within The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, followed by a question and answer period. Students present their research at least once each year in this format.
Students in this course should have a complete base of information about the various types of research studies being conducted in the medical school and the Feinstein Institute, a better foundation of information about the topics presented, and be able to effectively organize and present their own studies to a scientific audience.
