Harvard Systems Biology Graduate Program

 描述(由申请人提供)：本提案要求扩大对系统生物学开创性博士前培训计划的支持。哈佛大学系统生物学博士项目吸引了不同寻常的冒险精神和分析自信的研究生，他们展示了跨学科的决心。我们的中心目标是帮助这些学生确定跨学科方法可以提供唯一令人满意的答案的生物学问题，并使他们在未来的职业生涯中独立地识别和解决这些问题。该计划利用整个哈佛科学界的智力和实践资源，帮助学生发展广泛、严谨和创造性的方法来解决生物和医学中具有挑战性的问题。由两个部分组成的预赛资格考试是我们方法的核心。第1部分要求学生提出一种解决生物问题的定量、计算或理论方法。它测试学生构思、表达和运用应用于生物学问题的数量和理论的想法和方法的能力。这一部分的考试要求对理论和计算所能提供的东西进行创造性和深思熟虑的分析，以及生物学的一般知识。第二部分评估学生的论文研究计划以及对实验逻辑和方法的理解。我们的学生来自不同的背景。学生可以选择哈佛或麻省理工学院提供的一系列理科课程中的任何一门(通过交叉注册)。第一年，学生教职顾问与个别入学的学生合作，帮助他们确定哪些课程将最好地补充他们现有的培训，并帮助他们确定潜在的轮换实验室。项目教员开设了五门关于系统生物学不同方面的课程。此外，所有学生都被要求学习一门关于沟通的课程，最终撰写一份奖学金提案，以及一门关于生物医学研究伦理的课程。我们的计划旨在教育学生在系统生物学方面的最新水平，并鼓励他们达到更高的水平，扩大系统生物学方法在生物学和医学中的应用。我们的学生发表了许多关于从细菌病原体到人类的系统的高质量论文。从该项目毕业的学生平均将发表3.5篇论文，其中2篇是第一作者论文。我们相信，我们吸引的学生和我们给予他们的指导都是杰出的，我们有能力招募更多令人兴奋的学生加入该计划，他们将从中受益匪浅 我们可以为他们提供的机会。因此，我们要求将本供资周期的培训名额从6个增加到8个。学生在第一年和第二年的研究生学习中将得到资助。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests expanded support for a pioneering predoctoral training program in systems biology. The Harvard Ph.D. Program in Systems Biology attracts unusually adventurous and analytically confident graduate students, with a demonstrated determination to cross disciplines. Our central goal is to help these students identify biological questions to which an interdisciplinary approach can provide uniquely satisfying answers, and to prepare them to identify and address such questions independently in their future careers. The Program draws on the intellectual and practical resources of the entire Harvard scientific community to help students develop a broad, rigorous and creative approach to solving challenging problems in biology and medicine. A two-part Preliminary Qualifying Exam is central to our approach. Part 1 requires the student to propose a quantitative, computational, or theoretical approach to solving a biological problem. This tests the student's ability to conceive, articulate, and exercise quantitative and theoretical ideas and methods as applied to questions in biology. This section of the exam demands creativity and thoughtful analysis of what theory and computation can offer, as well as general knowledge about biology. Part 2 evaluates the student's plan for dissertation research and understanding of experimental logic and methods. Our students enter the Program with a wide variety of backgrounds. Students may take any of a range of science courses offered by Harvard or MIT (through cross-registration). The first year student faculty advisors work with entering students individually to help them determine which courses will best complement their existing training, and to help them to identify potential rotation labs. Five courses on different aspects of systems biology are offered by Program faculty. In addition all students are required to take a course on communication that culminates in writing a fellowship proposal, and a course on biomedical research ethics. Our program aims to educate students in the current state of the art in systems biology, and to encourage them to reach higher, expanding the use of systems biology approaches in biology and medicine. Our students have published many high-quality papers on systems ranging from bacterial pathogens to humans. An average student graduating from the program will have published 3.5 papers, of which 2 are first-author papers. We believe that the students we attract and the mentoring that we give them are both outstanding, and that we have the ability to recruit additional exciting students into the Program who could benefit greatly from the opportunities we can offer them. We are therefore requesting an increase from 6 training slots to 8 for this funding cycle. Students will be funded in their first and second year of graduae studies.