School of Medicine

Department E-mail:  biomed [at] iupui [dot] edu

Departmental URL:  https://medicine.iu.edu/graduate-degrees/phd/indianapolis/curriculum

(Please note that when conferring University Graduate School degrees, minors, certificates, and sub-plans, The University Graduate School’s staff use those requirements contained only in The University Graduate School Bulletin.)

Degree Offered

Ph.D. Minor in Life Sciences

Minor Description

The doctoral minor Life Sciences is a 12 credit hour minor designed to provide Ph.D. students in the IUSM Graduate Division and any program throughout IU the opportunity to gain a breadth of fundamental understanding of biomedical and life sciences as applied toward interdisciplinary team science where the ability communicate and work with team members from diverse training backgrounds is a key skill set to be developed.

Plan of Study

For Ph.D. programs within the I.U. School of Medicine, a life sciences minor may be selected by a student with the consent of the student’s advisory committee. This minor requires a minimum of 12 credit hours of advanced graduate level courses taken outside of the student’s major department. At least 6 credit hours must be in a single department/program. The minor representative on the advisory committee must be selected from one of the departments in which courses for the minor are taken and will ordinarily be from the department contributing two or more courses to the minor.

For students enrolled in the combined MD/PhD program only

Students enrolled in the combined MD/PhD program may select the following courses below to count towards the life sciences minor, instead of the above plan of study, unless they are also being used to fulfill requirements towards their PhD program. In that specific case, another GRDM-X course can be used in its place. Please note that these are graduate level versions of Phase 1 courses from the Doctor of Medicine curriculum:

• GRDM-X630: Molecules to Cells and Tissues (8 cr.)
• GRDM-X640: Fundamentals of Health and Disease (6 cr.) 

The following courses taken by students admitted through the Indiana Biomedical Gateway (IBMG)

Program for PhD Study cannot be applied to the Life Sciences minor:

• COMM-C534: Distilling Your Message (1 cr.)
• COMM-C533: Improvisation for Scientists (1 cr.)
• ENG-W533: Science Writing (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G505: Responsible Conduct of Research (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G506: Responsible Conduct of Translational Research (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G507: Reagent Validation as a Means for Enhanced research Reproducibility (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G702: Entering Biomedical Research (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G855: Experimental Design and Biostatistics (1 cr.) 

Admission Requirements

To be admitted to the Ph.D. minor in Life Sciences, you must be a currently enrolled doctoral student in good academic standing in any IU or IUPUI school. 

Grading Policy

A minimum of B (3.0) is required in each course that is to count toward the minor. If a minimum of B (3.0) is not earned in a course, that course must be retaken. A course may be retaken only once. Students who fail to achieve the minimum grade of B (3.0) the second time they take a course, will not be able to earn this Ph.D. minor. 

Qualifying Exam

This Ph.D minor does not require a Qualifying Exam 

Examples of Courses that could be selected for the Life Sciences Minor unless they are required for the PhD program major plan of study: 

Graduate Medicine (GRDM)

• GRDM-G700 – Translating Foundational Sciences to Contemp. Know. (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G715 – Biomedical Sciences 1 (2 cr. Or 3 cr.)
• GRDM-G716 – Biomedical Sciences 2 (2 cr. Or 3 cr.)
• GRDM-G717 – Biomedical Sciences 3 (2 cr. Or 3 cr.)
• GRDM-G703 – Physiology of the Coronary Circulation (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G707 – Physiology of Smooth Muscle (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G708 – Cardiac and Coronary Physiology of Exercise (1 cr.)
• GRDM G720 – Stem Cell Biology (2 cr.)
• GRDM-G724 – Molecular Cancer Genetics (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G725 – Gene Therapy (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G727 – Animal Models of Human Disease (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G728 – Fundamental Concepts of Infection and Immunity (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G729 – Introduction to the Immune System (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G745 – Fundamentals of Intracellular Signal Transduction (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G747 – Principles of Pharmacology (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G748 – Principles of Toxicology 1 (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G751 – PHAR-G 751 Advanced Concepts in Cytosolic and Nuclear Signal Transduction (2 cr.)
• GRDM-G761 – Molecular and Cellular Physiology of Ion Channels (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G762 – Renal Physiology (1 cr.)
• GRDM-G780 – Foundations of Neuroscience (6 cr.)
• GRDM-G788 – Next Generation Sequencing (3 cr.)
• GRDM-G817 – Molecular Basis of Cell Structure and Function (2 cr.)
• GRDM-G805 – Diabetes and Obesity (2 cr.)
• GRDM-G801 Cell Biology of the Neuromusculoskeletal System (4 cr.)
• GRDM-G819 Basic Bone Biology (3 cr.)
• GRDM-G807 – Structural and Chemical Biology (2 cr.)
• GRDM-G826 – Heterologous Expression of Proteins and Small Molecules
• GRDM-G848 – Bioinformatics, Genomics, Proteomics & Systems Biology (2 cr.)
• GRDM-G852 – Concepts of Cancer Biology: Signaling Gone Awry (2 cr.) 

Anatomy and Cell Biology

• ANAT-D501 Human Gross Anatomy (5 cr.)
• ANAT D528 Gross Anatomy for Health Care Professionals (5 cr.)
• ANAT-D502 Basic Histology (4 cr.)
• ANAT-D527 Neuroanatomy: Contemporary and Translational (3 cr.)
• ANAT-D701 Translational Neuroscience (5 cr.) 

Cellular and Integrative Physiology

• PHSL-F513 Human Physiology (6 cr.)
• PHSL-F603 Integrated Medical Physiology (3 cr.) 

Medical and Molecular Genetics (MGEN)

• MGEN-Q580 – Basic Human Genetics (3 cr.)
• MGEN-Q612 – Molecular and Biochemical Genetics (3 cr.)
• MGEN Q613 – Molecular and Biochemical Genetics Lab (2 cr.)
• MGEN-Q620 – Cytogenetics (2 cr.)
• MGEN-Q630 – Population Genetics (1 cr.) 

Medical Neuroscience

• MNEU-N711 – Translational Neuroscience and Neurogenetics (2 cr.)
• MNEU-N880 – Advanced Topics in Medical Neuroscience (1 cr. – titles vary) 

Microbiology and Immunology (MICR)

• MICR-J807 – Current Topics in Immunology (2 cr.)
• MICR-J829 – Current Topics in the Molecular Genetics of Microorganisms (2 cr.)
• MICR-J842 – Neoplastic determinants (2 cr.) 

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

• PATH-C693 – General and Clinical Pathology (4 cr.)

Pharmacology and Toxicology

• PHAR-F850 – Experimental Design and Grant Writing in Pharmacology and Toxicology (1 cr.)
• PHAR-F818: Principles of Medical Pharmacology (3 cr.)
• PHAR-F828 Principles of Pharmaceutical Toxicology in the 21st Century (2 cr.)