The Medical Sciences Program

The roots of the Medical Sciences graduate program are in the Experimental Program for Medical Education, which began in 1959. This program was designed to combine the study of Medicine with postgraduate education. From the beginning, it has evolved into a full-fledged Molecular Biomedicine and Cancer Biology offering M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the disciplines of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Pharmacology, Physiology and Biophysics. The program has retained its interdisciplinary spirit with a human biology core curriculum and specialty courses offered in conjunction with the Biology, Chemistry, and Neural Science programs. Medical Sciences provides courses for undergraduates, graduate students and medical students. The program offers graduate students a unique opportunity to teach in many of these courses. Finally, Medical Sciences is located in Bloomington, a small town in the beautiful rolling hills of southern Indiana, with a Big Ten university atmosphere that provides a focal point for an enormously diverse variety of athletic, cultural and recreational activities.

Masters and Doctor of Philosophy Degrees

Biomedical Track MS and PhD Programs – Physiology, Pharmacology, or Anatomy
Students enter the track in August through the Indiana University School of Medicine BioMedical Gateway Program (IBMG) and take the IBMG core courses and complete three lab rotations before selecting the program and lab they will ultimately join. During the second year, students take the major anatomy core courses plus foundation courses of a minor discipline (such as physiology, biochemistry, etc). Students establish an Advisory Committee, headed by the Research Advisor at the end of their first year. This committee aids the student in preparation for the Qualifying Examination (typically given at the end of the second year), which typically includes the writing and presentation of a Thesis Research Proposal (extramural grant format). The Qualifying Examination has two aims: 1) to assess the student's competency in the Anatomical subdisciplines and chosen minor, and 2) to determine if the student is prepared to begin thesis research. Upon passing the Qualifying Examination, the student is admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. The student's Committee advises the student throughout the conduct and completion of the doctoral research project, including the writing and defense of a Dissertation.

Educational Research Track PhD
The goal of this track is to produce a cadre of doctoral-level anatomy educators who are capable of teaching all of the anatomical disciplines to undergraduate, graduate, or professional students, and who are capable of producing the high-quality educational research and other scholarly work necessary for promotion and tenure.

Teaching Opportunities