Programs in Biomedical & Biological Sciences
As a leader in biological and biomedical research, USC is pleased to offer graduate Programs in Biomedical and Biological Sciences (PIBBS). The goal of PIBBS is to attract outstanding students and provide them with a rigorous, individually tailored educational experience to train them as internationally competitive research scientists.
PIBBS serves as an entryway into 15 Ph.D. programs in the biomedical and biological sciences at USC. Students accepted into the program carry out several laboratory rotations during their first year of study. Students may choose their laboratory rotations from more than 200 USC faculty who are conducting internationally recognized research in a diverse array of biological disciplines.
For more information, visit the USC PIBBS website
Recent Highlights
Our recruitment of high quality Ph.D. applicants to USC through PIBBS continues to grow both in the quality and quantity of students. In fall 2009 we had more than 350 applicants and a 46% acceptance rate to our offers for admission. Forty-one new students will matriculate in fall of 2010 from prestigious schools such as University of Pennsylvania and University of Washington. The average combined verbal and quantitative GRE scores of the incoming class is 1300, up from 1270 the previous year. Their average GPA is a 3.61, increased from 3.59 last year. Our U.S. students come from over ten different states and our foreign students represent five different countries. Our PIBBS students continue to select a wide variety of rotations and mentors on all four USC campuses.
For our current PIBBS class that just selected their mentors, approximately 25% of the class will join faculty at UPC and enter a variety of Ph.D. programs including Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience, and Molecular and Computational Biology. The remaining students will be joining faculty mentors and Ph.D. programs in KSOM and the School of Pharmacy. This past year, in just KSOM alone, PIBBS students have published over 20 first author papers. These papers include a wide array of disciplines, from cancer to cardiovascular disease, to epigenetics, to immunology and stem cell biology. These papers have included a high profile publication in Cancer Cell from a study for The Cancer Genome Atlas. In this study, first author PIBBS student Houtan Noushmehr contributed key preliminary data to a grant application to National Cancer Institute’s The Cancer Genome Atlas project, resulting in a $10.4 million award to the USC Epigenome Center. Also among recent publications is a cover article in Molecular and Cellular Biology by first author PIBBS student Depankar Roy. Other articles include manuscripts in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PLoS One, and Journal of Immunology.