Overview
The Graduate MCB Program Is a Powerful Multidisciplinary Challenge, Requiring the Highest Level of Student Commitment
Started in 1976, the Brown University Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry (MCB) is a basic science department in the Brown University Division of Biology and Medicine with broad core areas of scholarship ranging from biochemistry and developmental biology to genetics and cell biology.
MCB was organized to bring together faculty to explore both conceptual and experimental routes of investigation in the fields of experimental and computational biology. Courses range from the foundational to highly specialized levels, taught by 28 primary faculty members whose research programs span the widest possible spectrum of model systems, biological inquiries, and methodological approaches. Admission to the MCB graduate program is for students pursuing the Ph.D. degree.
The MCB graduate program has held a pre-doctoral training grant from NIH for more than 29 years, which helps to provide students solid research training tailored to their unique interests--from embryonic and neuronal development, reproduction, and genetics of behavior all the way to neurodegeneration and aging. The biological mechanisms under investigation include DNA recombination, replication and transcription, protein translation, RNA processing and transport, vesicular transport, protein folding and turnover, and various aspects of molecular signaling.
Model systems begin with prokaryotic, moving through plants and several metazoan species to mammals, including man. Along with such leading-edge technologies as proteomics, genomics, X-ray crystallography, and mouse transgenics, classical biochemical and genetic approaches are employed.
Entering graduate students may choose from two curricular tracks, one of which, the MCB track, offers advanced training in cell, developmental, molecular biology, and biochemistry. The alternative FCG track provides similarly advanced training in genomics, genetics and systems biology.
Full MCB Financial Support Comes in the Form of Fellowships, Teaching Assistant Stipends, and Funding from Other Sources
Graduate students working toward a Ph.D. are typically enrolled in the MCB program with a promise of financial support assuming their research and academic studies progress satisfactorily. While most students in the MCB program receive a full year of support with division fellowships, some exceptional students may receive university or dean's fellowships for the first year. During the second year, students usually receive stipends for one semester by working as teaching assistants.
In the second or third years, and occasionally in the first, students with exceptional promise that are U.S. citizens or permanent residents may receive appointments as USPHS (U.S. Public Health Service) trainees from the MCB executive committee. Faculty members accepting graduate students into their laboratories under the MCB program are expected to provide year-round support for students who have met the minimum teaching requirement (and are not receiving other forms of support). Support includes stipends for the academic year and the summer, tuition credit or registration fee each semester, as appropriate, annual health insurance, and payment of the health services fee during the academic year.
An Historic East Coast University, Brown Helps Students Design and Accomplish Their Own, Specialized Educational Plans
An historic and storied East Coast institution, Brown University in Providence, RI, is comprised of three schools, the undergraduate college, the graduate school, and the medical school. Students in the various programs represent all 50 states and scores of foreign countries. Brown is highly selective, with recent years seeing more than 18,000 applicants applying for 1,450 places in the freshman class, with admissions done via a "need-blind" policy.
Brown's three schools have approximately 100 programs of study available. The university operates in a collaborative, university-college manner where faculty members are committed to teaching as well as rigorous research. The curricula of all programs require students to design and accomplish their own, specialized educational plans. They are assisted in their efforts by some 630 faculty members, the largest number in the university's history, which makes for a low student-faculty ratio of 9 to 1.
There are approximately 1,500 students in the graduate school and 340 in the medical school. Through its graduate school, Brown University awards the advanced degrees of Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Medical Science, Master of Public Affairs, Master of Public Health, Master of Public Policy, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy.
Every graduate program has its own standards of quality and attainment, and the "mere mechanical fulfillment" of program requirements will not earn an advanced degree in any program.
From the Campus to Providence, from Rhode Island to New England, There Are Ways to Balance the Scholastic Life
Campus life is varied and balanced, as students manage and participate in 300+ organizations at Brown. Students also have the opportunity to join one of Brown's 37 varsity athletic teams and can compete at the intramural and club levels, as well. With a library system containing over 6,000,000 items--periodicals, bound volumes, sheet music, maps, and manuscripts--and other resources like several hundred personal workstations, computers, and terminals distributed across the campus, the scholastic life is focused and supported at every turn.
There is balance, however. The campus--composed of some 240 buildings and situated on a 143-acre parcel in Providence, Rhode Island's capital--is minutes from a vast array of commercial, cultural, recreational, and artistic offerings. There is dining, nightlife, and many healthy diversions, while the many and varied areas of the New England region are a short drive, bus trip, or train ride away.
Other gems of the East Coast, such as New York and Boston, are close enough for day excursions or extended weekends, and the entire range of seasonal recreation activities--boating and swimming in spring and summer, hiking and camping during summer and fall, skiing and snow sports in the winter--are within easy reach.
