MS in Medical Physiology Program

The MS in Medical Physiology program offers both a non-thesis track and a thesis track. Students are normally admitted into the research thesis track, which requires pairing applicants with a faculty member research mentor before actual enrollment. Enrollment in the non-thesis track will be considered on an individual basis.

Program Summary

The overarching objective of the MS Program in Medical Physiology is to imbue in its graduates a perspective that helps translate basic science discoveries into treatments of disease and strategies to promote health. Exposing students to studies involving many organism functions not only can prompt identification of therapeutic and health-promoting opportunities but also tempers those thoughts with recognition of how modification of one function may lead to changes in other functions that are either beneficial or harmful. The program also seeks to train students in effective written and oral communication.

Specific objectives of the program include student demonstration of:

• Broad comprehension of major functions of the human organism, how they interact, and how examples of dysfunction are diagnosed, treated, or represent an unmet medical need.
  • Assessment: satisfactory performance in the two-term graduate course “Medical Physiology”
• The ability to orally communicate the rationale underlying a research project and a critique of results of relevant research efforts.
  • Assessment: satisfactory performance in a course involving oral presentations of students’ research efforts or journal articles.
• For students in the research thesis track, the ability to conduct a research project and communicate in writing and orally the rationale underlying the research project, a critique of results of the student’s research efforts, and recommendations regarding future research efforts.
  • Assessment: a satisfactory thesis document and oral defense of the thesis.
    In addition to the above specific objectives students are required to take three elective courses relevant to their thesis offered in other graduate programs in topics such as cell biology, molecular biology, and statistics.

Please complete the form below and enter “Medical Physiology” as the Program of Interest.