The division of Biology and Medicine at Brown University offers the Ph.D. degree, as well as the combined M.D./Ph.D. for those simultaneously enrolled in the medical school. This graduate program, which is offered by the department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology, is designed for students interested in the fields of organ replacement and drug and gene delivery, prosthetic devices, vascular grafts, Tissue engineering, bioartificial organs, and promotes an understanding of the engineering designs and materials used in engineering and drug delivery systems; the cellular, molecular, and structural aspects of tissue material interfaces; the potential of bioderived, biomimetic, and biomolecular materials; the engineering of tissues regenerated on bioresorbable scaffolds or surviving within immunoprotective synthetic membranes; the surgical techniques required for successful implants; Areas of research include vascular grafts, bioadhesive drug delivery systems, nerve guidance channels, brain implants, bone and cartridge remodeling systems, endocrine organs, artificial skin, blood oxygenators, and mass transfer devices incorporating live cells or cell component.

Entering students are expected have undergraduate qualifications in the physical sciences, typically evidenced by a B.S. degree in engineering, physics, chemistry, biophysics, biology or materials science. Applicants with a B.S. or B.A. degree in biology with a sufficient background in the physical sciences are also considered. The Artificial Organs, Biomaterials & Cellular Technology (ABC) graduate program will consider applicants for an M.S. degree for one or two year program. The M.S. requires 8 semester courses, including thesis research and a thesis. The post-master's Ph.D. requires a minimum of 16 semester courses, at least two years of full-time resident commitment to the discipline, written and oral qualifying examinations, research, the Ph.D. dissertation, and a final oral examination. For students entering with an undergraduate degree, 4 and 1/2 years are generally required to complete the Ph.D. degree. The M.D./Ph.D. requires an additional three years beyond the medical school curriculum. The first two years of medical school typically precede the Ph.D. program, and the two clinical years follow the completion of the Ph.D. dissertation. Students who have successfully completed the first two years of medical school at Brown may obtain the Master of Medical Science (M.M.S) upon presentation of a research thesis.

All graduate student research is carried out in faculty research laboratories. In addition to all of the basic research equipment, tools, and facilities, major shared facilities include an electron microscope facility, which houses two high-resolution transmission electron microscopes and a scanning electron microscope; a professionally staffed animal-care facility fully equipped for animal maintenance, large animal surgery, and experimentation; an artificial-organ laboratory with a prototype shop for designing and testing a variety of prosthetic devices; an NMR facility with a 400MHz and a 600MHz spectrometer; an amino acid analyzer; a DNA synthesizer and a peptide synthesizer, a fluorescence-activated cell sorter; a greenhouse; a hybridoma laboratory; and a molecular modeling center. A mouse transgenic and knockout core facility and a molecular genetics core facility with the capacity to analyze genechips are currently being constructed. The fourteen-story Sciences Library houses approximately 4,000 current periodicals and 530,000 bound volumes and provides study space for 300 students.

A campuswide broadband communications network, connecting more than 110 buildings on campus, provides high-speed data communications among more than 3,000 workstations, terminals, hosts, and servers.

University fellowships and/or teaching and research assistantships are available to competitive candidates. Stipends for the academic year 2005-2006 are $25,000. Most fellowships and assistantships include a tuition scholarship in addition to stipend support. Students who are accepted to the program will be offered a University fellowship for their first year and a half at Brown. Subsequent years may be funded by teaching assistantships or research assistantships or by grants from outside sources. No support is provided for students at the M.S. level.

Tuition for the academic year 2005-2006 is $32,264 for regular full-time students, and is typically covered by University fellowships or teaching assistantships. Part-time students are allowed to pay according to the number of courses taken.

Ph.D. students must pay tuition for the equivalent of three years of full-time study (twenty-four units of tuition) unless credit has been allowed for graduate work done while in graduate residence at another institution. No more than eight of the required twenty-four units can be replaced in this manner.

Students who have fulfilled the tuition requirement, but not the academic requirements for their degree, must pay an enrollment fee until their academic work has been completed. For 2004-2005 the enrollment fee is $1,841 per semester.

For the academic year 2005-2006, the cost for single students living in the Graduate Student Center (dormitories) is approximately $5,498 annually. Many graduate students rent apartments in residential areas surrounding Brown campus, where rent prices range from approximately $800-$1,200 or more per month.

Student health insurance fees were covered by Brown University and the Department of Biology and Medicine for the year 2004-2005, and provisions have been made by the University to continue covering healthcare for Brown graduate students.

There are about 5,700 undergraduates and 1,500 graduate students enrolled in the University. Within the Division of Biology & Medicine, there are approximately 260 graduate students. Students come from all regions of the United States and from more than fifty other countries.

Brown University is in a Colonial restoration district situated at the top of College Hill in Providence, the capital of Rhode Island. The city of Providence, a compact area with excellent restaurants and cultural and social attractions, is the state's center for business, cultural, and recreational activities. The Brown campus itself is a 133-acre complex of architecturally diverse old and new buildings centered around the College Green. Throughout the year, the campus is alive with plays, concerts, movies, sports, lectures, art shows, and many other sources of entertainment and intellectual stimulation. Rhode Island is ideally located for travel to other parts of New England, including Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Boston, and the ski country of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Assembled in 1764 as the seventh college in America and the third in New England, Brown University began offering graduate courses in 1850. The first Ph.D. was awarded in 1889. In 1903, a graduate department was created with its own dean, and in 1927 the Graduate School was established as a formal organization. Undergraduate and graduate education and research in the biological sciences and medicine is situated in the Division of Biology and Medicine. Faculty members from all elements of the Division, both on campus and in the eight affiliated hospitals, participate in one or more graduate programs offering research degrees.

Applications can be completed on-line at the Graduate School Website. Completed applications are due in the office of the dean of the Graduate School by January 2 in order to receive maximum consideration for financial aid. Applications received after this date are considered, but no application for admission to the fall semester can be considered after August 1. Scores on the General and Subject tests of the Graduate Record Examinations are required. Students for whom English is a second language must submit scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

Brown University does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, age, handicap, status as a veteran, national or ethnic origin, or sexual orientation in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, or other school-administered programs.

To obtain applications directly online, click here.

Dr. Edith Mathiowitz
Graduate Program in Artificial Organs, Biomaterials & Cellular Technology
Department of Molecular Pharmacology & Biotechnology
Division of Biology & Medicine
Box G-B393
Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island 02912
Telephone: 401-863-3262
Fax: 401-863-1595
Email: Edith_Mathiowitz@brown.edu