Graduate Program in Biophysical Sciences

Chair

• Tobin R. Sosnick

Website

The Graduate Program in Biophysical Sciences is designed to transcend traditional departmental boundaries for the purpose of training scientists who will excel at addressing biological problems using quantitative and physical approaches. The program, which grants a Ph.D. degree from both the Biological and Physical Science Divisions, serves the needs of students who have strong backgrounds in the physical sciences and are intrigued by the interface of the physical, biological and computational sciences. Dual mentorship is a fundamental component of the program. Each student chooses a pair of dissertation advisors from across our diverse faculty and fully participates in both of these research groups.

The participating faculty in the program are drawn from The Physical and The Biological Sciences Divisions, and Argonne National Laboratory and hold appointments in:

Departments & Committees

• Ben May Dept. for Cancer Research
• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
• Chemistry
• Computer Science
• Ecology and Evolution
• Geophysical Sciences
• Human Genetics
• Mathematics
• Medicine
• Microbiology
• Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology
• Neurobiology
• Organismal Biology and Anatomy
• Pathology
• Physics
• Statistics

Institutes & Centers

• Inst. for Biophysical Dynamics
• Inst. for Genomics & Systems Biology
• James Franck Institute
• Materials Research Science & Engineering Center
• Pritzker Institute for Molecular Engineering
• Center for Physics of Evolving Systems
• Quantum Leap Challenge Institute
• Center for Living Systems

Curriculum

The curriculum assumes that entering students are well-grounded in the physical sciences. During the first year, students are expected to take one class per quarter from both the Biological Sciences Division and the Physical Sciences Division (6 courses total). The Biological Organization Series consists of courses chosen to rapidly teach the fundamental biology necessary to enter a laboratory and begin serious interdisciplinary research. To build upon students' strengths in the physical sciences, the first year includes three courses chosen from a list of graduate courses offered in Chemistry or Physics. The curriculum can be modified to fit the strengths and weaknesses in a student's background.

Students undertake a series of laboratory rotations as part of the process of identifying a dissertation topic. These rotations are usually performed during the Winter and Spring Quarters during the first academic year.

Interdisciplinary Practical Training

One of the unique advantages of the program is the 3 quarter laboratory course: From Production to Measurement and Analysis. In this intense, 16 hour a week course students deeply explore a series of important current instruments and techniques while carrying out the systematic characterization of several genes and their expressed proteins. The genes are chosen from the long list of "unknown ORFs" - open reading frames that have been predicted by genome sequencing projects, but have never been examined further.

The laboratory course is managed by a full-time course director who works closely with the students to provide experimental and intellectual continuity. The laboratory course covers (1) sample preparation and high throughput selection methods (e.g. engineering, expression, synthesis, and labeling of proteins and nucleic acids) and high throughput selection methods (phage display, in vitro selection); (2) measurement (spectroscopy and imaging including single molecule methods, NMR, x-ray diffraction, and mass spectrometry, etc.); and (3) computational approaches (extracting information from large data sets, bioinformatics, simulation and modeling). Although it is impossible to cover all biophysical methods, the process of mastering a subset of the important techniques gives students the confidence and foundation to build in any direction.

The first section of this course is the four-week Biological Research Immersion, which starts in late August and ends before the start of Fall Quarter. The course continues through the Autumn and Winter Quarters.

The program in Biophysical Sciences is an inherently collaborative training program, and the foundation of collaboration is the ability to coherently express complex ideas. As part of the laboratory course, students are expected to give frequent presentations, both oral and written: Analysis of recent papers, background preparation before research seminars, overviews of upcoming experimental techniques, experimental proposals, and presentations of results. As a group, students also participate in two large projects during the year - building an advanced optical instrument from basic components, and writing a software package to simulate a biological process.

Dual Mentorship

In order to truly bridge the expertise and approach of two scientific fields it is necessary to fully participate in both. The research program each professor maintains is a vibrant and dedicated research group whose members share in the daily successes and frustrations of their related questions. It is this shared intellectual exertion that moves a subject forward, and it is this environment that most efficiently teaches the deepest understanding. In our experience, this dual mentorship creates an unparalleled learning structure and will lead to the development of unimagined science.

For a list of trainers and their affiliations, details about admissions, and current information about this new and innovative program, see http://biophysics.uchicago.edu/

Course Requirements and Grading Policy

The didactic portion of the required curriculum is intended to be accomplished in the first year of the program. This curriculum includes the Lab Course, three graduate level biological sciences selectives and three graduate physical sciences selectives, including a course in molecular biophysics.  Appropriate selective courses are determined on an individual basis after consultation with the Curriculum Director and may vary based on the student's preparation and research plan.  Students must maintain a GPA of 3.0 in courses taken towards fulfillment of didactic course requirements.