A letter from the Director of the Graduate Program for Physiology and Biophysics:

Dear Prospective Student,

This fall as you are considering various graduate programs, I invite you to have a look at the graduate program in Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center in Denver, CO.

We are a group of scientists - faculty, postdocs, and students - engaged in research in cellular and molecular physiology, that is, in determining how cells work. Most faculty use a combination of electrophysiological, molecular biology, and live cell imaging techniques to study physiology. A state-of-the-art fluorescence microscopy facility provides access to confocal, total internal reflection, and multiphoton microscopes to address physiological questions that are on the cutting edge of research in the field.

Our appoach to cell physiology emphasizes thorough and quantitative evaluation of physiological processes at the cellular and molecular level, with emphasis on Neuroscience. Areas of interest include:

• Mechanism of neurotransmitter release (Betz, Science. 303:2037-9, 2004).
  
• Cholinergic signaling in the brain (Vijayaraghavan, Neuron. 38:929-39, 2003)
  
• Neuronal development using Xenopus and zebrafish as model systems (Ribera, Development. 28:33511-20, 2001)
  
• Olfactory physiology (Schoppa, Nat. Neurosci. 5:1194-202, 2002)
  
• Sodium channels (Levinson, Proc Natl Acad Sci U.S.A. 97:5616-20, 2000)
  
• Bicarbonate ion transporters (Grichtchenko, J Biol Chem. 276:8358-63, 2001)
  
• Tight junction complexes in the mammary gland (Neville, J Physiol. 545:567-79, 2002)
  
• Neuroendocrinology (Sladek, J Neurosci. 23:4621-9, 2003)
  
• Auditory function (Tollin, J NeuroSci. 26:10648-10657, 2005)
  
• Excitation-contraction coupling (Beam, J. Biol. Chem. 3521-3527, 2006)
  

Our department is small (11 faculty members) allowing for close, collegial interactions and personalized attention for graduate students. In addition to regular graduate coursework, we offer our graduate students an individualized course called 'Advanced Topics in Cellular Signaling,' in which students choose a topic they want and find a faculty member to teach it on a one-to-one basis. As part of the preliminary exam at the end of the first year, students write and defend a grant proposal, thus acquiring crucial writing and presentation skills essential to a successful scientific career.

Thank you for looking into our program and we look forward to your application.

Sincerely,

Sukumar Vijayaraghavan
Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Physiology and Biophysics

Program of Study
The Department of Physiology and Biophysics provides a multidisciplinary program of graduate education in physiology and biophysics, with an emphasis on cellular, molecular, developmental, and systems neuroscience, leading to the Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. degrees. Students take a limited number of core courses, thus having ample time to pursue individualized programs. Elective courses cover a wide variety of topics, including neuroscience, molecular biology, immunology, developmental biology, and pharmacology. In addition, students can select from a variety of specialized laboratory, lecture, and seminar courses offered here and in other departments and programs within the graduate and medical schools.

During the first and second years, students undertake independent research rotations in several laboratories, gaining reading and practical knowledge of research programs in several different areas. Students also participate in faculty-student journal clubs and departmental research seminars. A written thesis proposal is prepared during the spring quarter of the second year under the supervision of the student's chosen thesis advisor. Following completion of the oral comprehensive examination, students are advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. After completion of the research project, the doctoral dissertation is written and defended according to the rules of the Graduate School.

The Center
The Department of Physiology and Biophysics is one of the basic science departments of the University of Colorado Medical School, which along with the Graduate School and the Schools of Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Nursing and University Hospital form the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center (UCDHSC). The Medical School maintains close ties with the main campus in Boulder, which is about a 30 minute drive to the north of Denver. UCDHSC is the largest comprehensive health facility in the Rocky Mountain region and has gained national recognition for its accomplishments in biomedical research and patient care. See Research Facilities.

Student Group
There are approximately 450 graduate students and 500 medical students at the Health Sciences Center. About a dozen students are pursuing Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D degrees with members of the faculty of the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at any given time; many are members of interdepartmental programs in Cell and Developmental Biology, Molecular Biology, and Neuroscience. Approximately 50% of the students are women, and there are several international students.

Current Students

Recent Graduates

• Silvio Rizzoli is a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry-Germany in the Department of Neurobiology, working in the lab of Reinhard Jahn. Email: srizzol@gwdg.de
• Janet He is a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO. Email: yehun_he@hotmail.com.
• Teri Whisenand is working at GlobeImmune, Inc, Denver, CO. http://www.globeimmune.com/.

Financial Aid
Funds are available to pay the tuition, fees, and insurance premiums of students selected for admission, and to provide a stipend for living expenses. The stipend for the 2007-2008 academic year is $23,500.

See Denver Life for location and housing and living costs.

Application Information

Curriculum

Detailed requirements for our PhD program are available in the students handbook.
(link)