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Graduate Education in Medical Sciences

Admission Requirements
Degree Requirements

Mailing Address:
Graduate Education in Medical Sciences
College of Medicine (MC 784)
1853 West Polk Street
Chicago, IL 60612

Campus Location: CSN Suite 300, Rm 324
Program Code: 20FS8060PHD
Phone: (312) 355-0389
Fax: (312) 413-8221
E-mail: gemsinfo@uic.edu
Web Site: http://gems.comd.uic.edu/
Co-Directors: William Hendrickson, Thomas Guenthner, and John O’Bryan
Program Administrator: Mia Johnson

The GEMS Program offers students integrated training in the biomedical sciences. PhD programs include the areas of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Cell and Molecular Biology, Genetics, Immunology, Microbiology, Neurosciences, Pathology, Pharmacology, and Physiology. Students have the flexibility to choose a mentor from among more than 150 funded research faculty in all departments and PhD programs of the College of Medicine. Areas of research excellence within the broader disciplines include stem cell biology; cancer; development; gene regulation; host-pathogen biology; lung biology; molecular and integrated cardiac and vascular biology; proteomics, genomics, and bioinformatics; reproductive biology; signal transduction and virology.

Admission Requirements

Students apply using the GEMS PhD program code (20FS8060PHD) and list in order of preference up to three of the participating departments as areas of interest. Participating departments are the following: Anatomy and Cell Biology (20FS1024PHD), Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics (20FS4050PHD), Microbiology and Immunology (20FS1468PHD), Pathology (20FS1548PHD), Pharmacology (20FS1564PHD), Physiology and Biophysics (20FS1584PHD). Specific requirements are listed under each of these graduate programs.

In general, students should have the following:

Degree Requirements

GEMS students, during their first semester of study, engage in a core curriculum that focuses on the fundamentals of biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, and physiology. Beginning with the second semester, students choose from a variety of courses with the goal of concentrating more on their chosen area of interest.

During the first year, students additionally engage in 3 or 4 laboratory rotations of 10 weeks each. The students select from among the GEMS faculty potential mentors for their thesis research. At the end of the first year, students select their mentor and department from within the College of Medicine. The PhD is granted by the degree-granting program that the student selects.