The Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology graduate program offers advanced training appropriate for academic and research careers in a wide array of interdisciplinary research avenues. Molecular biology, molecular pharmacology and biochemistry, cell and neurophysiology, biophysics and whole animal physiology are some of the disciplines in which our faculty members are experts. Specialized techniques include electrophysiology (e.g., patch clamp) with cells and brain slices, structural biology and drug-screening, receptor mutagenesis and chimera functional studies, and fluorescence and confocal microscopy. Colaborative efforts are abundant and involve joint projects within and between departments at Brown University, with universities throughout the world, as well as with local hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and the National Institutes of Health.

Programs of study and research are developed individually in consultation with the student's adviser and advisory committee and are designed to ensure expertise in the student's principal field. Admission is ordinarily limited to applicants for the Ph.D., but admissions for the M.S. or M.A. only may also be permitted.

To fulfill Ph.D. requirements, students must complete 8 courses (at least two of which must be at the 200 level) and maintain a grade point average of 3.0 or higher. Students must be proficient in the fundamentals in pharmacology and physiology, obtained by advanced courses in advanced biochemistry, cell biology, molecular genetics, and cell and organ system physiology. In addition, students must pass a preliminary research examination according to established schedules, complete and publicly defend a doctoral dissertation, and participate in the undergraduate teaching programs of Division of Biology & Medicine. Attainment of the Ph.D. degree normally requires four to five years for Ph.D. candidates and three to four years for graduate work for M.D./Ph.D. candidates.

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; an NMR facility with 400 MHz, 500 MHz (with cryogenic probe) and a 600MHz spectrometer; a mouse transgenic and knockout core facility and a molecular genetics core facility with the capacity to analyze genechips. Furthermore, a proteomics facility including ITC, CD, DSC, and SPR instrumentation is housed in the Laboratories of Molecular Medicine.

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 2006-2007 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, research assistantships, or grants from outside sources. No support is provided for students at the M.S. level.

For the academic year 2006-2007, the cost for single students living in the Graduate Student Center (dormitories) is approximately $2,749 per semester or a total of $5,498 annually. Many graduate students rent apartments in residential areas surrounding Brown campus, where rent prices range from approximately $600-$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 2005-2006, 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 (http://gradschool.brown.edu/go/admissions). The department's deadline for applications is December 15. Applicants who wish to be considered for any type of financial support should file an application and submit all necessary credentials to the Graduate School admission office no later than this deadline. Applications received after this date will be considered for admission, but first consideration will be given to those received by the December 15 deadline. The General Graduate Record Examination is required. An appropriate Subject GRE is highly recommended. 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. Julie Kauer or Dr. Wolfgang Peti
Graduate Program Co-director for Molecular Physiology & Pharmacology, Box G-B3
Division of Biology and Medicine
Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island 02912
Telephone: 401.863.1596
Fax: 401.863.1595
Email: Julie_Kauer@brown.edu or Wolfgang_Peti@brown.edu