Overview
Program Emphasis on Three Broad Areas of Research
The Ph.D. program in biomedical sciences at the Florida State University College of Medicine focuses on three broad areas of research: development, neuroscience, and the molecular basis of human disease.
Researchers in the area of development examine a wide variety of questions such as the mechanism of sex determination in the fruit fly and the molecular mechanism of glial development. Neuroscience researchers study issues such as neural signaling pathways in the brain, synaptic physiology underlying cortical function, stress and drug addiction, energy homeostasis and hypertension, neuroendocrine chronobiology, and molecular basis for circadian rhythms.
Research related to the molecular basis of human disease is centered on structural biology, protein biophysics, molecular mechanisms of liver fibrosis, histones and genome stability, protein misfolding in disease, and the role of inositolphosphoglycans in cell signaling.
Biomedical Sciences Courses Help Students Explore and Analyze Current Research Topics
Florida State graduate courses in biomedical sciences include seminar-based courses where doctoral students present current research on biomedical sciences topics under the guidance of faculty members, as well as laboratory courses designed to provide students with individualized instruction and research. Courses are also offered in bioregulation and special topics such as aging, biotechnology, bioinformatics, genomics, molecular signaling, neuroscience, and physiology. Biomedical sciences coursework provides training in laboratory techniques and experimental approaches that are essential to contemporary molecular biology and biochemistry research.
Integrated Health Sciences Graduate Courses Offer Students Training in Health-Related Programs
The integrated health sciences course offerings at FSU include individualized research experiences, laboratory training, and seminar-based programs. Ethics and Professional Integrity in Research surveys issues raised by using animals in research, using people in research, and the scientific method itself. Seminars on health sciences and medical science education prepare students for teaching, conducting laboratory experiments, ethics in teaching, and legal and safety issues. Students in the Ph.D. program in biomedical sciences are required to participate in a minimum of two semester hours of supervised teaching before graduation.
Core Facilities Laboratories Provide State-of-the-Art Equipment for Students
Graduate students in the Ph.D. program in biomedical sciences at the Florida State University College of Medicine have access to core facilities labs containing state-of-the-art technologies in microscopy, genomics, proteomics, and flow cytometry.
The Cell Culture Facility is designed to accommodate the culture of mammalian cell lines and other animal cell lines, such as insect cells. The Flow Cytometry Laboratory facilitates the process in which measurements of physical and/or chemical characteristics of cells or particles are made while the cells pass single file through the measuring apparatus in a fluid stream.
The Confocal Microscopy Laboratory contains a laser confocal microscope equipped with a multiphoton laser, as well as other fixed laser lines that allow the user to select excitation wavelengths between 705-980nm. The technology allows spectacular simultaneous imaging of even four fluorescence proteins without dichroic mirrors or filters.
A Rich Environment for Research at Florida State University
Florida State University is a Carnegie I Research Institution in Tallahassee, nestled among the rolling hills of northwest Florida. Because of its location between the mild, moist climate of the Gulf states and the subtropical climate of the rest of Florida, Tallahassee sees the change of all four seasons. The city is home to two major universities and a community college, and with a median age of only 26.4, Tallahassee is Florida's youngest city.
A variety of successful programs span the field of biomedical science, including structural biology, neuroscience, chemistry, and biochemistry. Research at FSU is also supported by the School of Computational Science and Informational Technology, and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
