• PhD Degree Requirements
• Curriculum

Answers to many of the most challenging, interesting, and important questions in modern biomedical and life sciences are best obtained by multidisciplinary approaches that bridge the boundaries among traditional disciplines of basic research. In recognition of these changing approaches to research, the graduate programs of the basic science departments on the Chicago campus of Northwestern University were combined into a single program: the Integrated Graduate Program in the Life Sciences (IGP).

Interests of the faculty of this doctoral training program cover the full range of research in contemporary biomedical and life sciences. Presently, over 110 faculty are available as dissertation research advisors in the IGP. The basic science departments involved in the IGP are Cell and Molecular Biology, Microbiology-Immunology, Oral Biology, Pathology, Physiology, and Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry. Faculty members from seven clinical departments also participate in the IGP and are potential student preceptors.

Graduate study in the IGP leads directly to the PhD degree through The Graduate School.

The IGP is organized into nine curricular programs: cancer biology, cell biology, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, immunology and microbial pathogenesis, molecular biology and genetics, neurobiology, pharmacology and toxicology, and structural biology and biochemistry. The PhD program is designed to be completed in four-and-a-half to six years. Choice of a curriculum is nonbinding, and students may move freely from one to another during the first year of graduate study. Students who move from one curriculum to another may complete course requirements in the second year if necessary.

Applicants should contact the program or see Web site www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/igp to learn about program-specific requirements for admission.