About

The UC San Diego Genetics Training Program is designed for predoctoral (Ph.D.) students in any life or health sciences graduate program at UC San Diego who have completed their first year of study. We do not admit students from outside the university. The program is built on Genetics and Genomics research in the UC San Diego Health Sciences (including the School of Medicine, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, and Institute for Genomic Medicine), UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences, 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 – including emerging genomic approaches – with an appreciation of the problems, perspectives, and ethical issues associated with modern clinical and medical Genetics, including gene therapy. We welcome students from diverse backgrounds and abilities.

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. UC San Diego 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 broad range of research organisms, and by giving our trainees access to outstanding mentors and research problems, the UC San Diego Genetics Training Program develops uniquely prepared graduates with a foundation to take on the next generation of challenge in the life and health sciences.

Financial Support

Genetics Trainees are supported for the full term of their graduate study from a combination of training grant funds, research grants, and Biology, Biomedical Science, or Neuroscience Program funds, as arranged by the program through which they entered UC San Diego and the faculty mentor.

Pending available funds and active participation in the Training Program, students are eligible for support by an NIGMS-funded training grant, generally during graduate years 3 and 4. Students selected for the Training Program participate fully in program activities regardless of their source of support.

Students supported by training grant funds should acknowledge financial support from NIH predoctoral training grant T32 GM008666 (appointments initiated on or before June 30, 2022) or T32 GM145427 (appointments initiated July 1, 2022 or later) in research publications resulting their work.

We gratefully acknowledge institutional support for trainees, seminars and the annual program retreat from the Departments of Cellular & Molecular Medicine, Medicine, Neurosciences, Pathology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Reproductive Medicine; Institute for Genomic Medicine; School of Biological Sciences; and Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Extramural sponsors for the Genetics & Genomics in Medicine Seminar Series and Annual Retreat are separately acknowledged on pages for each event.