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Program Details

Graduate Program: Arizona Biological/Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Program

General Information

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Program/Degree
Arizona Biological/Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Program  
Program Description

The ABBS program integrates recruiting and admissions for ten PhD degree-granting programs: Biochemistry or Molecular and Cellular Biology (BMCB), Cancer Biology GIDP (CBIO), Cellular & Molecular Medicine (CMM), Drug Discovery and Development (DDD), Genetics GIDP (GENE), Immunobiology (IMB), Medical Pharmacology (PCOL), Pharmacology and Toxicology (PHCL), Pharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics (PHSC), Physiological Sciences GIDP (PS) and the School of Plant Sciences (PLS).

Students are admitted to ABBS with no formal commitment to any of the participating degree- granting programs. All students perform three laboratory rotations (two in fall and one in spring) during the first year. Students are free to complete these rotations with any faculty member associated with the participating programs. This provides maximum flexibility for students to explore diverse fields of study. Students with identified goals can focus immediately on a particular research area and program.

Upon completion of the third rotation (approximately nine weeks into the spring semester), students will select a faculty mentor and transition from ABBS to the degree-granting program associated with their faculty mentor. Students can also learn about the ABBS program by going to our website: https://abbs.arizona.edu.

 
Department/Academic Unit(s)

Graduate College

Please visit our main website for more information about the UA Graduate College.

 
College

Graduate College/GIDP

 
Campus where offered

University of Arizona - Main - Tucson

 
Contacts
Admissions Contact
Sophia Feller
520-621-4419
Graduate Program Coordinator
Sophia Feller
520-621-4419
Director of Graduate Studies
Catharine L Smith
520-626-8349
Graduate College Degree Counselor
Hayley Jean Kral
520-621-3484
 
Tuition and Fees
Please refer to the UA Bursar's Office Tuition and Fees Calculator for up-to-date information about tuition and fees. 
Please refer to the UA Registrar's's Office Special Course Fees for up-to-date information about special course fees. 

Admissions Information

Admissions Requirements

The following items are required to complete your application: Statement of Purpose, transcripts from all colleges and/or universities you have attended, and 3 letters of recommendation. All required documents must be uploaded electronically to your application; no paper copies will be accepted during the application process.

**Our campus is taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously. You can find response and mitigation information here: https://covid.arizona.edu/. Please be aware that all our admitted students are hired and funded as a Graduate Assistants and are thus required to comply with the employee vaccine requirement or provide documentation of a religious or disability/medical accommodation. You can read more about the requirement here: https://hr.arizona.edu/content/employee-covid-19-vaccine-requirement.**

 
Standardized Tests

The GRE is no longer required for admission to the ABBS program.

For any international applicant not born into an English speaking country, proof of English proficiency is required from at least one of the accepted tests found below. Tests must be dated within two years of enrollment term to be considered valid. The following are acceptable English proficiency credentials:

  • Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) - minimum score of 79 iBT or 60 on the revised PBT with no section score lower than 15 (550 on PBT taken before 2017)
  • International English Language Testing System (IELTS) - minimum composite score of 7, with no subject area below a 6
  • Pearson PTE Academic - minimum score of 60
  • Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) - minimum score level C1
  • Graduate English Language Endorsement from the Center for English as a Second Language (CESL)
  • CEPT Full Academic test - minimum score level C1(equivalent to 126 or higher), offered by our Center for English as a Second Language (CESL)

You can find more information about exceptions for international applicants here on the University of Arizona's Graduate College page. Please contact sfeller@email.arizona.edu with any questions.

 
Funding Opportunities

All students admitted to the program are provided full financial support which includes: annual stipend, paid tuition, and individual student health insurance.  Financial support is provided by the ABBS Program for the first one and a half semesters. By the middle of the spring semester (after three laboratory rotations), all students are expected to select a faculty mentor who will then provide support for the remainder of their graduate career, assuming satisfactory academic progress.

 
Admissions Deadlines

Domestic Applicants:

  • Fall: December 1, 5pm MST

International Applicants:

  • Fall: December 1, 5pm MST
 
International Conditional Admission

International applicants will not be considered for conditional admission by this program.

Other Information
The GRE Institution Code for The University of Arizona is 4832

Completion Requirements

Minimum Credit Units

23 

Core Coursework Requirements

Grad 696c ABBS Student Forum, 1 unit

MCB 972 Independent Study, 2 units

Students in the this program are required to complete the ABBS forum class, Grad 696c, that is designed to support students in their professional and personal growth as they start their graduate school journey. Students must also complete the rotation course three times, MCB 972. This is to account for the three laboratory rotations students complete to explore labs and get a feeling for the best fitting lab to join for their dissertation. 

 
Elective Coursework

In addition to the core requirements of the ABBS program, students will enroll in four core courses from the program of their choice, two journal clubs, and two seminars between their first and second semester in the ABBS program. Examples of the classes are listed below. 

 

12 units selected from:

BIOC 565 Proteins and Enzymes, 3 units

CBIO 552 Cancer Biology, 4 units

CBIO/PCOL  630B Cellular Communications and Signal Transduction, 3 units

CHEM 550 Synthetic and Mechanistic Organic Chemistry, 3 units

CMM 577 Principles of Cell Biology, 4 units

ECOL 553 Functional and Evolutionary Genomics, 4 units

EPID  576A Biostatistics in Public Health, 3 units

IMB 548 Basic and Advanced Immunology, 3 units

MCB 572A Cell Systems, 4 units

MCB 580 Introduction to Systems Biology, 3 units

NRSC 588 Principles of Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, 4 units

PCOL 601a Epigenetics in Development and Disease, 2 units

CMM 518 Fundamental Genetics Mechanisms: from Molecules to Genoems, 2 units

PCOL/PHSC 530 Proteins and Nucleic Acids as Drug Targets, 3 units

GENE 670 Recent Advances in Genetics 2 units

PLS 539 Methods in Cell Biology and Genomics, 3 units

PLS 540 Mechanisms in Plant Development, 3 units

PLS 548A Plant Biochemistry and Metabolic Engineering, 3 units

PLS 560 Advanced Plant Biology, 4 units

PLS 580 Medicinal Plants, 3 units

PLS 583 Controlled Environment Systems, 3 units

PLP 527R General Mycology, 3 units

PSIO 503 Cellular and Molecular Physiology, 6 units

PSIO 572 Quantitative Modeling of Biological Systems, 3 units

 

4 units selected from: 

BIOC 595B Journal Club, 1 unit

BIOC 696D Seminar in Biochemistry, 1 unit

CBIO 595A Journal club: Oncogenes and Signal Transduction, 1 unit

CBIO596h Cancer Biology Seminar Series, 1 unit

CMM 595A Journal Club, 1 unit

CMM 696A Seminar, 1 unit

GENE 670 Recent Advances in Genetics, 2 unit

IMB595A Journal Club, 1 unit

IMB696A Research Seminar, 1 unit

IMB 696B Trainee Seminar, 1 unit

MCB 595 MCB Journal Club, 1 unit

MCB 596 MCB Seminar, 1 unit

PCOL 696a Seminar, 1 unit

PHSC 596a DDD Seminar, 1 unit

PLS/PLP 596A Plant Sciences Seminar, 1 unit

PLS 695A Plant Sciences Journal Club, 1 unit

PS 696C Physiology Student Forum, 1 unit

PSIO 696A Physiology Seminar, 1 unit

 

While students in this program do not earn a degree, the courses they take during this year long program are building towards the requirements of the program they will choose to major and earn their PhD in. The courses specific requirements of the 10 ABBS programs differ, so we encourage each of our students to work with individual program advisors to determine the best selection of courses. 

 
Additional Requirements

There are no additional requirements that are not already listed above.

 
Student Handbook

Please refer to the Graduate Student Handbook for students who are pursuing this program of study.

 

Persistent link: https://grad.arizona.edu/catalog/programinfo/ABBSDLP
Last revised 24 Aug 2022
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