Lehigh University
Biological Sciences
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Overview
Lehigh is an independent, nondenominational, coeducational university. Founded in 1865, it has approximately 4,500 undergraduates within its three major colleges: Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Applied Science, and Business and Economics. There are approximately 2,000 students enrolled in various graduate programs and in the graduate-only College of Education. The 700-acre campus includes superb athletic facilities, a health club, and cultural venues, including a $33-million arts center.
The department currently has 40 full-time graduate students working toward doctoral degrees. More than 100 part-time students are pursuing the M.S. degree in molecular biology by distance education.
Graduates of the program pursue a variety of professional paths. Many first work as postdoctoral fellows in either academic or industrial settings, with the goal of going on to permanent positions in academe or industry. Others immediately work in research positions in pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies after completing their degree. Many graduates currently hold tenure-track faculty positions in colleges or universities.
The Location and Community
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (population 72,000), is located 50 miles north of Philadelphia and 90 miles west of New York City; best access is via Interstate 78, U.S. Route 22, or the Lehigh Valley International Airport. Founded in 1741, Bethlehem has a rich cultural heritage in the Moravian tradition. Historic buildings have been well preserved, giving the community a charming Colonial atmosphere. The Lehigh Valley (Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton) is the chief commercial and industrial center for east-central Pennsylvania.
Programs of Study and Degree Requirements
The Department of Biological Sciences offers Ph.D. degrees in three disciplines: biochemistry, integrative biology, and molecular biology. A master’s degree in molecular biology can be completed by employees of participating companies via distance education with courses given online and by closed-circuit satellite networks. All in-house graduate students pursue doctoral degrees on a full-time basis. Distance education students typically take graduate courses part-time.
In the first year of residence, full-time students take courses related to their discipline and begin laboratory rotations in the research labs of faculty advisers. After the first year of residence, students are expected to be actively engaged in thesis research. Students continue their professional development through a variety of activities, including participation in graduate seminar courses, journal clubs, research presentations, and attendance at national and international professional meetings.
Facilities & Resources
The department is housed in Iacocca Hall on Lehigh’s Mountaintop Campus, which sits atop South Mountain overlooking Bethlehem and the Pocono Mountains. Individual faculty research laboratories are supplemented by core facilities for ultracentrifugation; HPLC; flow cytometry; light, fluorescence, and confocal microscopy; cell culture; DNA sequencing; DNA microarray analysis; real-time PCR; a proteomics facility; and an animal-care facility. Additional equipment available on campus includes a 500 MHz NMR, electron microscopes, a STEM, and an atomic-force microscope.
The University libraries contain one of the most technologically advanced information systems in the U.S. Through the campus network, all services are received electronically in offices, classrooms, and laboratories. The collection includes 1 million volumes, 10,000 serials, 1.7 million microforms, and 550,000 government documents plus audiovisual, CD-ROM databases, a media production center, and listening and viewing facilities.
Expenses and Aid
Teaching assistantships and fellowships provide stipend support and cover tuition fees. Research assistantships are from individual faculty research grants and provide stipend support and, in some cases, tuition. University scholarships are also available to cover tuition. Tuition is $1370 per credit.
Financial Aid:
Regular status, full-time graduate students receive stipend support through teaching assistantships, research assistantships, or fellowships. These stipends include full-tuition remission, for up to 9 credits per semester.
Housing/Living Expenses:
Students live in a wide variety of accommodations, and expenses can be reasonable, especially if shared. Lehigh operates a 148-unit garden apartment complex for single and married students, located in nearby Saucon Valley. Rent for a one-bedroom unfurnished apartment is $450 per month. Day care is available nearby, and hourly bus service is provided.
How to Apply
Applicants are required to submit their scores on the General Test of the Graduate Record Examinations by the following dates, along with the rest of the application material: applications for admission as a regular graduate student are accepted until February 1 for the fall term; to be considered for financial aid, completed applications must be received by the College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Office by January 15 for the following academic year. Students should send all admission forms to College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Study, Maginnes Hall, Lehigh University, 9 West Packer Avenue, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015.
Who to Contact
Graduate Admissions Committee
Department of Biological Sciences
Lehigh University
111 Research Drive
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015
610-758-3681
The Faculty and Research
• Neal G. Simon, Professor and Chair; Ph.D., Rutgers, 1979. Neuroendocrine regulation of behavior; neural steroid receptor biology.
• Barry S. Bean, Professor; Ph.D., Rockefeller, 1970. Human sperm function; fertilization; contraception.
• Michael J. Behe, Professor; Ph.D., Pennsylvania, 1978. Evolution of protein structure.
• Maria Bykhovskaia, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Russian Academy of Sciences, 1992. Synaptic transmission; exocytosis; short-term memory.
• Lynne Cassimeris, Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina, 1988. Cytoskeleton; microtubules; mitosis.
• David L. Cundall, Professor; Ph.D., Arkansas, 1974. Evolution, behavior, systematics, ecomorphology, and functional morphology of snakes.
• Matthias Falk, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Heidelberg (Germany), 1991. Gap-junction membrane channels, cell communication.
• M. Kathryn Iovine, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Washington (St. Louis), 1988. Zebrafish; organ growth control.
• Murray Itzkowitz, Professor; Ph.D., Maryland, 1970. Behavioral ecology; mate choice; parental division of roles.
• Steven Krawiec, Professor; Ph.D., Yale, 1968. Bacterial chromosome organization; acquisition of genes in bacteria.
• Michael Kuchka, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Carnegie-Mellon, 1984. Regulation of gene expression; organellar genes.
• Linda J. Lowe-Krentz, Professor; Ph.D., Northwestern, 1980. Signal transduction; vascular cell biology; heparin.
• Stefan Maas, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Heidelberg (Germany), 1996. RNA editing.
• Tamra C. Mendelson, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Duke, 2001. Evolutionary biology; speciation; animal behavior.
• John Nyby, Professor; Ph.D., Texas, 1974. Neuroscience; neuroendocrinology; behavior.
• Colin Saldanha, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Columbia, 1995. Neural plasticity; memory; steroids.
• Jeffrey A. Sands, Professor; Ph.D., Penn State, 1973. Virology; genetics.
• Jill E. Schneider, Professor; Ph.D., Wesleyan, 1982. Nutritional infertility; reproductive behavior; regulation of eating and body weight.
• Robert V. Skibbens, Associate Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina, 1994. Cell division protein; regulation of cell cycle; yeast.
• Jennifer Swann, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Northwestern, 1984. Development, neuroanatomy, and hormonal regulation of sexually differentiated behaviors.
• Vassie C. Ware, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Yale, 1981. Ribosome biogenesis; RNA processing; RNA transport.
Recent Publications
• Khunsook, S., B. S. Bean, S. R. McGowan, and J. A. Alhadeff. Purification and characterization of plasma membrane-associated human sperm a-L-fucosidase. Biol. Reprod. 68:709-16, 2003.
• Khunsook, S., J. A. Alhadeff, and B. S. Bean. Purification and characterization of human seminal plasma a-L-fucosidase. Mol. Hum. Reprod. 8:221-7, 2002.
• Behe, M. J., and D. W. Snoke. Simulating evolution by gene duplication of protein features that require multiple amino acid residues. Protein Sci. 13:2651-64, 2004.
• Behe, M. J. Design in the details: The origin of biomolecular machines. In Darwinism, Design & Public Education, pp. 287-302, eds. J. A. Campbell and S. C. Meyer. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2003.
• Samigullin, D., C. A. Bill, W. L. Coleman, and M. Byhovskaia. Regulation of transmitter release by synapsin II in mouse motor terminals. J. Physiol. 561:149-58, 2004.
• Bykhovskaia, M., E. Polagaeva, and J. T. Hackett. Mechanisms underlying different facilitation forms at the lobster neuromuscular synapse. Brain Res. 1019(1-2):10-21, 2004.
• Cassimeris, L. Cell division: Eg’ing on microtubule flux. Curr. Biol. 14:R1000-2, 2004.
• Piehl, M., et al. (L. Cassimeris). Centrosome maturation: Measurement of microtubule nucleation throughout the cell cycle using GFP tagged EB1. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101:1584-8, 2004.
• Cundall, D., and F. J. Irish. The snake skull. In Biology of the Reptilia, Morphology H, vol. 20, eds. C. Gans and A. S. Gaundt. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR), in press.
• Deufel, A., and D. Cundall. Feeding in Atractaspis (Serpentes: Atractaspididae): A study in conflicting functional constraints. Zoology 106:43-61, 2003.
• Segretain, D., and M. M. Falk. Regulation of connexin biosynthesis, assembly, gap-junction formation, and removal. Biochem. Biophys. Acta 1662:3-21, 2004.
• Lauf, U., et al. (M. M. Falk). Dynamic trafficking and delivery of connexons to the plasma membrane and accretion to gap junctions in living cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99:10446-51, 2004.
• Iovine, M. K., et al. Mutations in connexin 43 (GJA1) perturb bone growth in zebrafish fins. Dev. Biol. 278(1):208-19, 2005.
• Iovine, M. K., and S. L. Johnson. A genetic, deletion, physical, and human homology map of the long fin region on zebrafish linkage group 2. Genomics 79(6):756-9, 2002.
• Haley, M., J. Smith, and M. Itzkowitz. Female choice and male courtship in the beaugregory damselfish. Behavior 141:391-405, 2004.
• Itzkowitz, M., N. Santangelo, and M. Richter. How does a parent respond when its mate emphasizes the wrong role: A test using a monogamous fish. Anim. Behav. 66(5):863-69, 2003.
• Wang, P., A. E. Humphrey, and S. Krawiec. Kinetic analyses of desulfurization of dibenzothiophene by Rhodococcus erythropolis in continuous culture. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62:3066-8, 1996.
• Rattanachaikunsopon, P., C. Rosch, and M. R. Kuchka. Cloning and characterization of the nuclear AC115 gene of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Mol. Biol. 39:1-10, 1999.
• Yohn, C., et al. (M. R. Kuchka). Translation of the chloroplast psbA mRNA requires the nuclear-encoded poly(A)-binding protein, RB47. J. Cell Biol. 142:435-42, 1998.
• Savage, J., et al. (L. J. Lowe-Krentz). Antibodies against a heparin receptor slow cell proliferation and decrease MAPK activation in vascular smooth muscle cells. J. Cell Physiol. 187:283-93, 2001.
• Athanasiadis, A., A. Rich, and S. Maas. Widespread A-to-I RNA editing of Alu-containing mRNAs in the human transcriptome. PLoS Biol. 2(12):e391, 2004.
• Luciano, D. J., et al. (S. Maas). RNA editing of a miRNA precursor. RNA 10(8):1174-7, 2004.
• Mendelson, T. C., and K. L. Shaw. Sexual behaviour: Rapid speciation in an arthropod. Nature 433:375-6, 2005.
• Mendelson, T. C. Sexual isolation evolves faster than hybrid inviability in a diverse and sexually dimorphic genus of fish (Percidae: Etheostoma). Evolution 57:317-27, 2003.
• James, P. J., and J. G. Nyby. Testosterone rapidly affects the expression of copulatory behavior in house mice (Mus musculus). Physiol. Behav. 75:287-94, 2002.
• Aikey, J. L., et al. (J. G. Nyby). Testosterone rapidly reduces anxiety in house mice (Mus musculus). Horm. Behav. 42:448-60, 2002.
• Saldanha, C. J., et al. Estrogen provision by reactive glia decreases apoptosis in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). J. Neurobiol. 64(2):192-201, 2005.
• Oberlander, J. G., et al. (C. J. Saldanha). Neural aromatization accelerates the acquisition of spatial memory via an influence on the songbird hippocampus. Horm. Behav. 45(4):250-8, 2004.
• Joyce, J., et al. (J. A. Sands). The L1 major capsid protein of human papillomavirus type 11 recombinant virus-like particles interacts with heparin and cell-surface glycosaminoglycans on human keratinocytes. J. Biol. Chem. 274:5810-22, 1999.
• Schneider, J. E. Energy balance and reproduction. Physiol. Behav. 81:289-317, 2004.
• Buckley, C. A., and J. E. Schneider. Food hoarding is increased by food deprivation and decreased by leptin treatment in Syrian hamsters. Am. J. Physiol. 285:R1021-29, 2003.
• Hu, S., et al. (N. G. Simon). ERbeta protein expression in female cynomolgus monkey and CF-1 mouse brain: Western analysis. J. Neurobiol. 64(3):298-309, 2005.
• Mo, Q., et al. (N. G. Simon). DHEA and DHEA sulfate differentially regulate androgen receptor and its transcriptional activity. Mol. Brain Res. 126(2):165-72, 2004.
• Skibbens, R. V. Unzipped and loaded: The role of DNA helicases and RFC clamp-loading complexes in sister chromatid cohesion. J. Cell Biol. 169(6):841-6, 2005.
• Skibbens, R. V. Chl1p, a DNA helicase-like protein in budding yeast, functions in sister chromatid cohesion. Genetics 166:33-42, 2004.
• Swann, J. M., J. Wang, E. K. Govek. The MPN mag: Introducing a critical area mediating pheromonal and hormonal regulation of male sexual behavior. Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 1007:199-210, 2003.
• Govek, E. K., J. Wang, and J. M. Swann. Sex differences in the magnocellular subdivision of the medial preoptic nucleus in Syrian hamsters. Neuroscience 116(2):593-8, 2003.
• Dunbar, D. A., V. C. Ware, and S. J. Baserga. The U18 snRNA is not essential for pre-rRNA processing in Xenopus laevis. RNA 2:324-33, 1996.