The UCSD Genetics Training Program prepares graduate students for the next generation of challenges in the life and health sciences.

In Brief

The UC San Diego Genetics Training Program is designed for predoctoral (Ph.D.) students in any life or health sciences graduate program at UCSD who have already completed their first year of study. We do not admit students directly from outside the university.

The program is built on Genetics and Genomics research at the UCSD School of Medicine, Division of Biological Sciences, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Institute for Genomic Medicine, and The Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Our program complements this outstanding research environment with specialized coursework and seminars, peer interactions, and a career advising program to train graduate students for front-line careers as academic or industrial scientists. Our faculty, students and alumni investigate genetic mechanisms and use genetic methods to understand biological problems important for human health.

Our program's integrated educational principles merge a rigorous training in the principles, intellectual underpinnings, and quantitative analytical methods of both classical and cutting edge Genetics and Genomics approaches with an appreciation of the problems, perspectives, and ethical issues associated with modern biomedical applications, including clincial genetics and gene therapy.

Our philosophy is to train outstanding students in the intellectual and technical methods of Genetics after they have developed a strong foundation in modern biological or biomedical sciences through their first year of graduate study and selected an appropriate mentor for their thesis research. UCSD graduate students with an interest in Genetics or Genomics should apply with the support of a faculty mentor during the Spring or Summer of their first year, to begin training in the Fall of their second year of graduate school.

Our students learn the logic and culture of current and developing Genetics and Genomics research, as well as the lore and methods of classical Genetics. By putting these focused intellectual activities into broad biological and clinical contexts, by providing training in the full range of Genetic investigation and exposing students to a wide range of research organisms, and by giving our trainees access to outstanding mentors and research problems, the UCSD Genetics Training Program develops scientists who are uniquely prepared to take on the next generation of challenges.