With ample opportunities for advanced elective courses catered especially to doctoral-level students (meaning that both contemporary and classical primary literature constitute the teaching materials, and in-depth discussions are the norm), students devote most of their time to basic science, applied, or translational research conducted in the laboratory of their primary mentor. Areas of research being conducted by CMB faculty recruiting students includes biochemistry, parasitology, bacteriology, virology, vaccine development, cellular and organismal metabolism, bioinformatics, genomics, intracellular motility, host defense and inflammation, allergy and autoimmunity, toxicology, cancer biology, redox biology, regenerative medicine, fibrosis, and x-ray crystallography.

The CMB program attracts applicants from diverse undergraduate majors, and we seek to admit students with hard science coursework appropriate to the major (recent admitted student majors include Biochemistry, Biology, Biotechnology, Cell Biology, Chemistry, Genetics, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Physics, etc.,) and indicating preparation for the Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Sciences doctorate. An important complement to coursework preparation is research experience outside the classroom. Most of our admitted students have worked during summers or after graduating with their undergraduate degree in laboratory settings, have strong letters from research advisors, and have gained the experience to explain in the personal statement and during the interviews what they were doing, why they were doing it, how the experience shaped their need to pursue doctoral studies, and how the CMB Program and specific labs of CMB faculty complement their interests.