Curriculum
IGPPEB graduate students will matriculate through and ultimately receive degrees from one of the participating Departments: Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (MB&B), Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB), and Physics; or the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) through the Departments of Applied Physics (AP), Chemical Engineering (CE), and Mechanical Engineering (ME); or the program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (CBB). Thus, IGPPEB students must satisfy the curriculum and other requirements of their matriculating department and/or program. In addition, students in the IGPPEB program must satisfy IGPPEB-specific requirements.
The following resources contain department- and program-specific curriculum and graduation requirements.
CBB: http://www.yale.edu/bulletin/html/grad/compbio.html
MB&B: http://www.yale.edu/bulletin/html/grad/mbb.html
MCDB: http://www.yale.edu/bulletin/html/grad/mcdb.html
Physics: http://www.yale.edu/bulletin/html/grad/phys.html
SEAS: http://www.yale.edu/bulletin/html/grad/enas.html
A guiding principle in establishing the IGPPEB curriculum is that the IGPPEB requirements do not increase the time to complete the Ph.D., yet allow IGPPEB students to have truly interdisciplinary training in quantitative approaches to biological questions. The slate of IGPPEB classes is given below. In their first year of study, all IGPPEB students must take (1) either Boot Camp Biology for Physicists and Engineers or Mathematical Methods in Biophysics or be waived out of one or both, (2) Methods and Logic in Interdisciplinary Research, and (3) Integrated Workshop. Each IGPPEB student must have completed all his/her IGPPEB courses before the end of the second year of study. In the summer after the first year, each IGPPEB student must carry out a research project with co-advisors from different disciplines.
Fall Semester
MBB 520a1, Boot Camp Biology for Physicists and Engineers
A half-semester intensive introduction to biological nomenclature, systems, processes and techniques for graduate students with backgrounds in non-biological fields including physics, engineering and computer science who wish to perform graduate research in the biological sciences. It will provide a basic coverage of biological nomenclature, systems, processes, and techniques to equip the student to subsequently take more advanced biological courses as desired. This class is a pre- or co-requisite for subsequent IGPPEB classes and can be waived provided a comparable course was successfully completed as an undergraduate.
MBB 635a / ENAS 518a Mathematical Methods in Biophysics
Applied mathematical methods for students with a biological backgrounds, including statistics and error analysis, differential equations, linear algebra, and Fourier transforms, and analysis of real data from various research groups. This class is a pre- or co-requisite for subsequent IGPPEB classes and can be waived provided a comparable course was successfully completed as an undergraduate
ENAS 517a2/MB&B512a2/PHYS517a2, Methods and Logic in Interdisciplinary Research
A half semester class introducing integrated approaches to research. Each session will be led by two faculty with complementary expertise and will discuss papers that use different approaches to the same topic (for example, physical and biological or experiment and theory). Students will meet by themselves to hammer out the details of the papers, and then with faculty.
PHYS 523a /MB&B523a/ENAS 541a, Biological Physics
An introduction to the physics of several important biological phenomena, including molecular motors, protein folding, bacterial locomotion and allostery. The material and approach are positioned at the interface of the physical and biological sciences.
Spring Semester
PHYS 991b /ENAS 991b /MBB 591b, Integrated Workshop
A laboratory course involving hands-on modules with students working in pairs. A biological student will be paired with a physics or engineering student; a computation/theory student will be paired with an experimental student. The modules are devised so that a range of skills are acquired, and students learn from each other.
MCDB 561b / PHYS 529b, Systems Biology: Theory and Experiment
An introduction to the techniques used to integrate knowledge from mathematics, physics, and engineering into the analysis of complex living systems as dynamical systems. Use of these methods to address key questions about the design principles of biological systems.
Course Evaluations
IGPPEB faculty are committed to excellence in both research and teaching. The faculty strive to educate students to become critical thinkers with integrated areas of expertise. Below are quotes from students who took IGPPEB-related courses from IGPPEB faculty.
ENAS130: Introduction to Computing for Engineers and Scientists (Prof. Corey O’Hern, Spring 2008)
"Dr. O'Hern was an excellent professor. He was always available to help students and was really flexible. He is very friendly and clear lecturer. He made computer programming interesting and useful and I'm really glad that I took his class. He really wants everyone to understand and enjoy his/her time in class."
"Prof. O'Hern was a great professor. He was engaging and fun in class, and he made this class accessible to students like me who had never taken any programming classes before."
PHY523/MB&B523 Biological Physics (Prof. Simon Mochrie, Fall 2007)
"As a physics student interested in biology, this course was absolutely perfect for me. One of the best courses I have taken at Yale. The material is awesome."
"I would recommend it to all students studying biophysics as it develops some of the fundamental underlying principles that we don’t think of much in biology classes."
MCDB 561 Systems Modeling in Biology (Prof. Thierry Emonet, Spring 2008)
"Finally! A course on biological modeling which will certainly help Yale train a new generation of students. It gave a crash course of MATLAB for the development of general ODEs for biological modeling…The overall course gives a solid introduction to mathematical modeling in biology."
MCDB 205 Cell Biology (Prof. Thomas Pollard, Spring 2008)
"This class will make you fall in love with Biology. It is absolutely fascinating material and you learn an incredible amount by the end of the year. Definitely take it if you are at all interested in Bio."
MB&B 445 Methods and Logic in Molecular Biology (Profs. Anthony Koleske, Lynne Regan, and Patrick Sung, Spring 2008)
"This was a great class, definitely one of my top 5 at Yale. Focus was on thinking intensely while you were in class and not on memorizing hundreds of thousands of facts. A class that makes you feel like you're getting smarter. It was a challenging environment with other focused students and provided an incredible learning experience that was also a lot of fun."
"Take it. If you have to, move things around in your schedule to make room for this class. This is the best class taught at Yale. You will have tons of fun, and you will learn a lot of good science. It's an amazing opportunity to interact with some of the most incredible professors in MBB in a really relaxed atmosphere. Also, I can't imagine a better way of boosting your confidence; you get a real chance to speak out, and your opinion is always valued. As a warning, it's a really difficult class (intellectually, not in terms of workload), but it's worth every second you put into it."
MB&B 730 Methods and Logic in Molecular Biology (Profs. Nigel Grindley, Anthony Koleske, and Lynne Regan, Fall 2007)
"I love the light, friendly, and playful atmosphere that [the professors] provide during discussions... coupled with the probing questions they ask to challenge our responses…"
"This course was great!!! Awesome papers, discussions, professors, presentations by fellow students and topics!!!"
MB&B 435 Mathematical Methods in Biophysics (Profs. Elizabeth Rhoades, Fall 2007)
"I would certainly recommend this class to other students. First of all, it's a great opportunity to have a systematic review of math…and learn about the applications to biophysical systems beyond the fundamentals."
