The department offers two areas of graduate study: biological sciences and neurosciences. Both provide students with research experiences using all areas of modern biological techniques to study molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, systems and organism functioning. The biological sciences area has several specializations including: cell and developmental biology, biochemistry and genetics, microbiology and ecology and physiology. The neuroscience area is offered in collaboration with the neuroscience faculty in the Department of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Health Sciences. In addition to general training in the biological sciences, students receive specialized course work in the neurosciences and choose a neuroscience laboratory from either department for their dissertation research. The main areas of research include: the neurobiology of addiction, stress and mental disorders, mechanisms of feeding behavior, neuronal regeneration, and ion channels.