The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) is based on the premise that graduates who choose careers in biomedical research and/or teaching are more effective in these roles if they have obtained a solid background in the basic medical sciences, in addition to high-quality learning and research experience in a specific area of study.

A major objective is to educate researchers and teachers whose abilities in specialized areas are enhanced by knowledge of the relationships among the medical sciences, as well as knowledge of their relevance to human problems.

The program of study leading to the PhD degree consists of an interdisciplinary core curriculum to be taken by all students and a specialization and research phase to be selected by the individual student.

The core curriculum provides all students with an integral foundation in the sciences basic to medicine, emphasizing contemporary topics in biological chemistry, transfer of genetic information, cellular architecture and regulation, and multicellular systems and processes, as well as an ethics course on the responsible conduct of science. Students should complete the core requirements in one year to 18 months, but no later than two years after admission.

Students are required to participate in at least two laboratory rotations during their first year in the program. Laboratory rotations (short periods of research experience under the direction of faculty members) are intended to familiarize students with concepts and techniques of several scientific fields. They allow faculty members to observe and evaluate the research aptitudes of students and permit students to evaluate the types of projects that might be developed into dissertation projects.

Upon completion of each rotation, students submit a written abstract report on the research accomplished. (Some programs require an additional rotation seminar.) The faculty sponsor grades the rotation on aPass/Fail basis and submits a written evaluation of student performance to the dean.

Each rotation is a three- or four-credit course and lasts a minimum of eight weeks if students participate full time in the laboratory, or up to a full semester if students also take courses. Two one-half rotations can be undertaken under special circumstances.

An advisor for each incoming student, usually a PhD program graduate director, assists each student in selecting a sequence of course work and laboratory rotations, and provides counsel and information. Advisors meet with students before the beginning of each new semester to assess progress, approve alterations in proposed course work and laboratory rotations and report students' status to the dean.

• Train biomedical scientists/educators in a specialty area with abroad background in the basic medical sciences.
• Equip graduates to conduct research with direct relevance to human disease.
• Prepare graduates to interact and collaborate with scientists and physicians involved in clinical investigations.
• Prepare graduates for careers as educators in schools of the health professions; and maximize the unique educational potential of UMMS' affiliate relationship with the four other University of Massachusetts campuses and with member institutions of the Colleges of Worcester Consortium, including Clark University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.