Program Overview

The Interdisciplinary Program (IDP) in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Florida College of Medicine is a Ph.D. graduate program consisting of six advanced interdepartmental graduate programs (concentrations) that cooperate in the recruiting, admission, and first-year training of graduate students, in preparation for specialized training by the individual advanced programs.  The six advanced concentrations are Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Genetics, Immunology & Microbiology, Molecular Cell Biology, Neuroscience, and Physiology & Pharmacology.  

The mission of the IDP is to provide a pre-doctoral educational experience that will train experimentalists and scholars prepared for a wide range of careers in biomedical science.  The IDP curriculum is therefore designed to provide maximum flexibility for the training of biomedical research scientists.  The educational goals of the IDP are to promote biological literacy by providing core and advanced curricula covering key chemical, biological and genetic principles using molecular, cellular and physiological approaches, and to promote scholarship in biomedical science through mentored, original research.    

Admission to the IDP is determined by a faculty committee representing all advanced programs.  An important feature of the program is that students enter with no formal commitment to any advanced program or research laboratory, and they may choose from any mentor among the entire IDP faculty for first-year laboratory rotations and ultimately for their dissertation mentor.

The College of Medicine also offers several M.S. & Joint Degree Programs.  Joint degree programs allow qualified students to combine medical science studies with other professional or graduate works to broaden their academic knowledge, earn two degrees in a reduced amount of time, and better prepare for various biomedical science career tracks.

The First Year

The first year of study consists of four basic components: At the end of the second semester of study, students choose a research mentor and an affiliation with one of the six advanced concentrations.

First-year students have the option of beginning their course specialization as early as the Spring semester of their first year. Spring semester coursework may be tailored to each student's interests by enrollment in core courses and/or selected advanced courses.  Faculty advisors will be available to provide guidance about course selection.  

Spring semester core courses include:  Neuroscience;  Physiology & Functional Genomics;  Immunology & Microbiology;  Principles of Drug Action;  Cancer Biology;  and Development.

Research Mentors

Graduate students enter the IDP with no formal commitment to a Department, Advanced Concentration, or faculty member.  Students are required to complete three different lab rotations during their first year of graduate study, and may select rotation mentors from the entire IDP faculty.  After the three rotations, students select their Ph.D. mentor by mutual agreement with one of their rotation mentors.  Most IDP faculty members are affilated with one or two IDP advanced concentrations, and students select one of those for their affiliation based on their research interest.  

Advanced Concentrations

Graduate training beyond the first year focuses on laboratory research supervised the student's mentor, supplemented with a selection of advanced courses provided by the advanced concentrations.

The advanced concentrations are interdepartmental disciplines that are responsible for the advanced training of IDP students.  The structure and membership of the advanced programs are deliberately flexible to accommodate rapid changes in the structure and scope of biomedical science.  There are currently six advanced concentrations:

Each advanced concentration is responsible for supervising the academic and intellectual development of each student, creating and maintaining supervisory committees for graduate students, overseeing student mentoring after the first year, administering qualifying exams, and providing an advanced curriculum of classroom study.  Uniformity in requirements and procedures is provided by the IDP Advisory Board, which is responsible for formulating guidelines to be applied to all of the advanced programs.

Faculty & Departments

As an academic program the IDP is completely integrated across the seven College of Medicine basic science Departments and the College of Dentistry Dept. of Oral Biology.  The IDP also includes UF Graduate Faculty members from clinical departments and from other Colleges who have joint appointments in these 8 basic science departments.  Each of the IDP Advanced Concentrations is interdepartmental in its faculty composition.  IDP students are affiliated with the Department in which their faculty mentor is appointed.  This department affiliation will be the administrative home for your research assistantship appointment and other fiscal matters after your first year of study, and will be an important focus for research activities.  

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Last Updated on 9/14/04
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