UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS
Graduate Program in Molecular and Cell Biology
The University of Texas at Dallas was formerly the privately operated Southwest Center for Advanced Studies. It became part of the University of Texas System in 1969, at which time it began enrolling graduate students. Upper-level undergraduates were first enrolled in 1975, and the first freshmen were admitted in 1990. Originally a natural sciences research facility, UT-Dallas has evolved into a university with Schools of Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Computer Science, General Studies, Human Development, Management and Administrative Sciences, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Social Sciences. Despite this breadth, the University is still small, with a student body of 9,008 and a faculty of about 265. A close student-faculty relationship exists, and students receive individual attention from the faculty members.
The Community
The UT-Dallas campus is located in Richardson, a northern suburb of Dallas. Students can easily take advantage of many recreational activities, including those provided by several large lakes in the area. The surrounding countryside is ideal for golf, sailing, flying, bike riding, and horseback riding. Cultural attractions are numerous and include the Dallas Opera, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (which performs in the Myerson Symphony Hall), the Dallas Theater Center, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Dallas Arboretum and the Botanical Gardens. Other universities in the area, such as Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical center at Dallas, contribute to the cultural and intellectual atmosphere. The climate is healthful and sunny, with mild winters.
Programs of study and degree requirements
The graduate program offers both a Master of Science and the Doctor of Philosophy degrees. The program emphasizes molecular and cellular aspects of modern biology, including biotechnology.
First-year Ph.D. and M.S. students normally complete a core of lecture courses in biological chemistry, molecular biology, macromolecular physical chemistry, and cell biology. There is also a laboratory course with instruction in techniques in molecular and cell biology and the option of research in the laboratory of a faculty member. Master's candidates then begin thesis work, based on either laboratory or library research, or complete a body of elective courses with no thesis. Ph.D. candidates take a preliminary examination at the end of the core curriculum to determine their competence for doctoral studies. They then choose a supervising professor and a supervising committee, who oversee the remainder of their work. During their third year, students take an oral examination to qualify for doctoral candidacy. Students who pass this examination to become Ph.D. candidates are awarded an interim M.S. degree. Normally, two years of study are required for the M.S. degree and five years for the Ph.D. degree.
A significant number of students who have received their Ph.D. degrees through the program now occupy tenure-track positions in universities and medical schools or are research scientists with genetic engineering companies. Many holders of the M.S. degree have positions in government, hospital, public health, environmental, and industrial laboratories.
Facilities & Resources
Major item of equipment used by the faculty and available for graduate student research include a Phillips 400 electron microscope with Gatan cryo-stage, a Zeiss EM 10CA electron microscope, a Zeiss flourescence microscope, six ultracentrifuges, four preparative centrifuges, an Applied Biosystems DNA synthesizer, Joyce-Loebl and LKB-laser microdensitometers, three Coulter counters, three high-pressure liquid chromatography units, four scintillation counters, one gamme counter, many spectrophotometers, an SLM 8000 photon-counting spectrofluorometer, Jasco J-500A and J-710 spetropolarimeters, and Molecular Dynamics phosphoimagers. Thermal cyclers are available for polymerase chain reaction experiments. There are complete facilities for mammalian cell culture and virus propagation. Microcomputers, with access to sequence analysis programs and nucleic acid data banks, are available for student use. Two Silicon Graphics workstations with Biosyn and Polygen nucleic acid data banks are available on campus for molecular modeling studies. A GE 500 MHz FT multinuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer is available in the chemistry department. A research animal housing facility is located on campus.
Other shared biology facilities include a darkroom with an automated X-ray film developer, 2 cold working laboratories, six constant-temperature rooms, an iodine-125 laboratory, a staffed media kitchen with autoclaves and washing machines, and an electronics workshop. In addition to the University library, the program has its own library located near the research area.
Expenses and Aid
Established Ph.D. students and selected incoming students customarily receive financial support, primarily teaching or research assistantships, equaling $15,400 plus a $1900 tuition credit per year. Out-of-state students with assistantships pay in-state tuition, saving about $7500 per year. Grants, scholarships, and loans are available through the University.
The 2005-2006 tuition for one semester of full-time study (12 semester hours), including all fees, was $3054 for residents of Texas and $6300 for nonresident American citizens and international students. Students with assistantships are accorded Texas resident status.
The University has a limited number of housing facilities for students, and privately owned apartments in neighboring areas are available at reasonable rates.
How to Apply
Students are selected on the basis of previous academic work, scores on the General Test of the Graduate Record Examinations, letters of recommendation, and whenever possible, a personal interview. The minimum score on the GRE General Test (verbal plus quantitative) required for admission is 1000. However, a score of at least 1250 on the test is generally needed to compete successfully for an assistantship. Applicants whose native tongue is not English must score at least 550 on the TOEFL. A bachelor's degree or it's equivalent from an accredited university is a prerequisite. Ideal preparation would include organic chemistry, calculus, general physics, general biology, genetics, and biochemistry.
Who to contact
For more information, contact:
Graduate Adviser, Molecular and Cell Biology Program,
University of Texas at Dallas
P.O. Box 830688; Richardson, Tx 75083-0688
Telephone: (972) 883-2505;
Email:hannig@utdallas.edu
The Faculty
Gail A.M. Breen, Associate Professor; Ph.D. (neuroscience), UCLA. Isolation and characterization of genes that code for proteins of the mammalian mitochondrion; mitochondrial biogenesis; eukaryotic gene regulation.
John G. Burr, Associate Professor; Ph.D. (molecular biology), Berkeley. Eukaryotic growth regulation; mechanism of viral oncogenic transformation.
Lee Bulla, Professor; Ph.D. (biotechnology, molecular genetics and genomics), Oregon State University. Biochemistry, microbial genetics, biotechnology and prokaryotic-eukaryotic interactions.
Santosh D'Mello, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (biology), Pittsburgh. Neural development; genes and signaling pathways regulating apoptosis in mammalian neurons.
Jeff DeJong, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (biochemistry), Penn State. Eukaryotic transcription factors; regulation of genes encoding detoxification enzymes.
Rockford K. Draper, Professor; Ph.D. (biological chemistry), UCLA. Membrane traffic; somatic-cell genetics; protein toxins.
Donald M. Gray, Professor; Ph.D. (molecular biophysics), Yale. Study of nucleic acids and protein-nucleic acid complexes by UV circular dichroism spectroscopy.
Juan Gonzalez, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (molecular genetics and microbiology), UCLA. Microbial-plant interactions; cell-cell communication; carbohydrate biosynthesis; microbial genetics.
Ernest M. Hannig, Associate Professor; Ph.D. (molecular genetics and microbiology), Rutgers. Control of protein synthesis; genetic and biochemical analysis of translation initiation factors; protein-protein interactions; yeast genetics.
Matt Junker, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (biophysics), Virginia. NMR of DNA-binding proteins; structure and function of yeast heme activation protein 1.
Stephen D. Levene, Associate Professor; Ph.D. (chemistry), Yale. Protein-DNA interactions in site-specific recombination; nucleic acid structure.
Robert C. Marsh, Associate Professor; Ph.D. (molecular biology), Vanderbilt. Molecular architecture and function of nuclear and nucleolar matrices; protein-DNA interactions.
Dennis L. Miller, Associate Professor; Ph.D. (biochemistry), Iowa. Structure and organization of mitochondrial DNA; mitochondrial gene expression; RNA editing; mitochondrial biogenesis.
Lawrence J. Reitzer, Associate Professor, Ph.D. (molecular biology), Washington (St. Louis). Regulation of gene expression and metabolism in prokaryotes.
Ronald E. Yasbin, Professor and Program Head; Ph.D. (microbiology), Rochester. Microbial genetics pathogenic mechanisms; gene regulation.