Curriculum - Predoctoral

In addition to all the educational opportunities afforded to postdoctoral fellows, such as our rich seminar series, grant writing classes, classes in ethics in research and the very framework of Data/Journal Club, predoctoral fellows are also subject to an extremely rigorous educational curriculum that is mostly standardized, but does vary slightly among departments.

Predoctoral fellows, regardless of the department in which they are based, complete multiple core courses in biochemistry, statistics, ethics, cell and molecular biology and, depending on specific interests and requirements, pharmacology, physiology and pathology/anatomy. Examples of an educational curriculum with all required coursework are given below.

 In addition to required coursework, we have established an informal course on Contemporary Concepts of Myocardial Biology that has been incorporated into the current Data/Journal Club. This covers history, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, function, pharmacology and diseases of the heart, including topics on current trends in the cardiovascular arena and serves as a template for a career in the cardiovascular sciences. Approximately once a month, members of the training faculty teach a topic of importance in cardiovascular biology for all trainees.

There are a number of additional training features for predoctoral fellows built into the educational curriculum. Each department and the College of Medicine as a whole host a graduate education day in which all graduate students are required to present posters based on their research. The posters are judged and prizes awarded. All graduate students are also expected to pass a rigorous qualifying examination before they are advanced to candidacy, and we typically do not appoint predoctoral trainees to the training program until this has occurred (usually within their second year).

In the predoctoral program, we consider those PhD graduate students who have completed all course work requirements, are admitted to candidacy, are committed to a career in the cardiovascular sciences and have selected one of the mentors on our faculty. Thus, the student may come from one of the approved graduate programs, each under the aegis of a department, or part of the FLEX program.

Generally, the first year is dedicated to laying a foundation of formal classroom instruction and introductory lab experiences. A course on Experimental Methods/Journal Club (often called Seminar) is generally offered by all programs on a weekly basis and must be attended by all graduate students.

During the fall semester of Year One, faculty members discuss their research describing methodologies utilized in their labs. After these presentations, students select three laboratories through which they would like to rotate during the first academic year. Students should spend a minimum of 10 to 15 hours per week in the laboratory to gain direct exposure to basic laboratory principles and procedures, with the primary goal of selecting a thesis research project and advisor. Students will be graded (pass/fail) for research in each laboratory rotation.

In most programs, the student passes the qualifying examination by the end of the first year’s summer. This exam consists of submission of a research proposal (American Heart Association or National Institute of Health format depending on department) and successful defense of the proposal along with satisfactory knowledge of all coursework completed. The student then forms a dissertation committee, which approves the dissertation proposal and the student will then submit a formal application to Graduate School for admission to Doctoral Candidacy.

The dissertation committee typically includes four members from the student’s primary department and one member from a different department. At least two of this committee’s members are almost always program faculty, which provides cohesiveness with the overall cardiovascular training program.

During the second year, the student usually takes one advanced course/semester, as recommended by the individual program, and spends most time on his or her thesis research. In years three and after, the focus is on research, publication and attending scientific meetings to present data.

This time frame is flexible with some students finishing earlier. Attendance at department/program seminars, related journal clubs and meetings scheduled with outside seminar speakers is required of all. Each graduate program has its own guidelines and a checklist that needs to be adhered to by the mentors and the trainees and which is tracked by the Internal Advisory Committee (IAC) of the training program. In general, students are expected to meet with their thesis committee every six months to present their research progress and seek advice. This is followed by a written report summarizing all the issues/concerns raised during the meeting and the way that the student will proceed to address them subsequently.

The report is signed by both the advisor and the student and then submitted for signatures to all the committee members. Subsequently, these reports are forwarded and reviewed by the program directors, the IAC and the External Advisory Committee and become part of the trainee’s official file.

Usually, by the end of year four (although complete after year three) in graduate school, the trainee presents an overall outline of their thesis research and their publications (at least two first-authored and several co-authored are expected) to the thesis committee and seeks permission for thesis writing. The written thesis is submitted to the committee three weeks before the pre-public defense. When this is successfully passed, the student proceeds with their public defense. Graduation usually occurs four to five years after entering the graduate program.

All of the graduate programs require a core course curriculum during the first year based on Molecular Biology of the Cell series and the Molecular Genetics series. The individual departments require additional specialty course work such as Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, Biophysics, Advanced Molecular Genetics, Integrative Physiology, Functional Genomics, Biostatistics and Structural Biology.

All trainees are required to take the course on “Ethics in Research.” This program consists of a series of eight presentations by experts covering (1) Integrity and Responsibility in Research, (2) Human Experimentation, (3)Institutional Review Board, (4) Conflict of Interest in Research, (5) Animal Welfare, (6) Responsible Authorship and Publication Practices, (7) Institutional Response to Misconduct, and (8) Public Expectations from Research.

There is also a course on Scientific Writing that is highly recommended to our trainees. All students are also strongly encouraged to take a basic course in Bioinformatics (Introduction to Bioinformatics: 20 BME 643) and highly recommended is the following:

Ethics in Research (26GNTD730)

Text for the class is "Scientific Integrity" (3rd Edition) by Francis Macrina, ASM Press.
It consists of nine one-hour lectures (once each week). The predoctoral fellows are required to take this for credit; the postdoctoral fellows are required to audit.

The director is Christine McHenry, MD, Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics and Director of Medical Ethics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

The nine lectures include:

What is Ethics and Why is it Important, by Christine McHenry, MD, MATS

Human Subject Research - Part 1: An Overview, by Christine McHenry, MD, MATS

Human Subject Research - Part 2: I'm from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and am here to Help, by Robert Frenck Jr., MD, Professor of Pediatrics and IRB Chair at Cincinnati Children’s

Research Involving Animals, by Thomas Korfhagen, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics

Ethics in Scientific Publication: Publication Practices, Authorship, and Peer Review, by Alan Jobe, MD, Professor of Pediatrics 

Ethics in Intellectual Property, by Joseph Fondacaro, PhD (Director, Intellectual Property and Venture Development at Cincinnati Children’s)

Conflicts of Interest, by Christine McHenry, MD, MATS

Visiting Professor - Jeffrey Botkin, MD, MPH  Professor, Pediatrics, Associate Vice President for Research Integrity at the University of Utah

Research Misconduct, by Sandra Degen, PhD

 

Public speaking is emphasized in each program through the graduate student presentations at the weekly Journal Club/Graduate Student Seminar series. The latter links all the pre- and postdoctoral fellows and enhances their communication skills. This meeting is led by a senior trainee.

Also, the students and postdoctoral trainees organize a few seminars per year with previous graduates of the program, who provide unique insights related to future opportunities in research.

Furthermore, the trainees meet with visiting seminar speakers in their respective departments, and most importantly with our Cardiovascular Center Distinguished Seminar Series speakers throughout the year.