Year 1

Students within the SBTP are part of the PAMM graduate program. Besides rotating through various research laboratories, each first year PAMM or BRTP student takes four core courses offered through the BRTP program. These courses are taught by faculty from a variety of departments, including Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology. Both BRTP 821 and 822 are taken the first semester whereas BRTP 823 and 824 are taken the second semester. These four courses provide a strong, multidisciplinary foundation that is important for success in modern biomedical research.

BRTP 821. Macromolecular Structure and Function
This course provides an introduction to fundamental concepts in the biochemistry of macromolecules, including the structure, characterization, purification, and functional analysis of proteins and nucleic acids.

BRTP 822: The Cell and Gene Regulation
This course provides an introduction to fundamental concepts of cell structure, cell division, the experimental study of cells, and the regulation of gene expression.

BRTP 823: Molecular Cell Biology
This course provides the fundamental concepts for understanding genetic analysis and cell function. The relationships between cellular functions and their biochemistry are examined in membrane transport, energy production, protein secretion, cytoskeletal structure/function, and cell specification.

BRTP 824: Cell Signaling
This course provides an introduction to fundamental concepts of cell signaling and cell regulation. Concepts include receptor systems, signal transduction, regulation of membrane potential, and the relationships between cell signaling and development, cancer, neurobiology, and immunobiology.

In addition, all SBTP students must enroll continuously, i.e., each semester they are in the PAMM PhD program, in two courses. First, all pre-doctoral students present their research to the faculty each year in the Departmental Seminar Series (PAMM 970). Second, PAMM 992 (Advanced topics in Microbiology) is a journal club based course where students read and present published papers from a current speaker before they arrive in the Pathology and Microbiology Basic Science seminar series. Note that MD/PhD Scholars do not take the BRTP course series as they are matriculating through their own course curriculum within the Medical School in the College of Medicine. BRTP students do not enroll in PAMM 970 or PAMM 992 in their first year.