Student Opportunities at the Department of Cell Biology
Support for Students
Ph.D. students
at the Lerner Research Institute are supported during their graduate studies.
The programs provide tuition, fees and a stipend for each student. Student support
is provided from individual research grants of student mentors and Lerner Research
Institute funds designated specifically for graduate education.
Housing
A variety of housing
options are available for students at CCF, including apartment complexes, houses
and rooms for rent. The University
Circle area is walking distance from Cleveland's historic Little Italy,
with its brick streets, art studios and craft shops. Many students live within
a short bike ride or drive in the near eastern suburbs of the city. The Coventry
area is popular with its shops, restaurants, and a movie theatre while being
close to the Clinic and affordable.
A housing list is
available from Housing and
Residence Life in Yost Hall at Case Western Reserve University. The updated
list is available every Friday after 1PM. There is a small fee for non-CWRU
students.
Graduate Programs available
at the Department of Cell Biology
The Biomedical
Scientists Training Program (BSTP) is the major graduate admission program
at Case Western Reserve University Medical School. Many staff members from
the Cleveland Clinic Foundation have faculty appointments at Case Western
Reserve University Medical School and are active participants in this program.
Thirteen departments and training programs in the Medical School participate
in this program: Anatomy; Biochemistry; Biology; Cell Biology; Developmental
Biology; Environmental Health Sciences; Molecular Biology and Microbiology;
Molecular Virology; Molecular and Cellular Basis of Disease and Immunology;
Molecular, Developmental, and Human Genetics; Neurosciences ; Neurosciences
and Bio-engineering; Nutritional Sciences; and Pharmacological Sciences. Several
of these, including Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, and Molecular Virology,
are training programs, which do not have a home department, but rather extend
through multiple departments. BSTP has a centralized recruitment and admission
process and all students have specific core curriculum requirements. Students
participate in multiple laboratory rotations during the first year, after
which they choose a laboratory for their dissertation research. At that time,
they become students in the department in which their mentor has an appointment.
Specific course requirements, the format and timing of the Qualifying Exam,
and the composition of the thesis committee may differ among departmental
programs. Several departments, including Anatomy, Biochemistry, and Molecular
Biology and Microbiology, admit students directly in their own Ph.D. and M.S.
programs, in addition to participating in the BSTP program. These admissions
programs may have separate admissions requirements and training grants.
Contact faculty:
Ganes
Sen, Ph.D.
Participating Staff
The Cell Biology
Program provides educational and research opportunities through its journal
clubs and colloquia and through graduate training toward the Ph.D. degree.
The research environment includes all the basic science departments of the
School of Medicine, the Department of Biology, and several laboratories at
University Hospitals of Cleveland and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. These
departments collectively cover a diverse set of areas of contemporary interest
in the cell biology of higher animals, plants, yeast and other microorganisms.
These include the extracellular matrix, secretion and endocytosis, cell adhesion,
the cytoskeleton, the nuclear envelope, etc. Many of these areas interface
with local research in biochemistry, genetics, immunology, molecular biology,
neuroscience, pharmacological sciences, and physiology and biophysics.
Participating Staff
The Department
of Physiology & Biophysics offers training in three research areas: Biophysics
and Bioengineering, Cell Physiology, and Systems Integrated Physiology. Admission
to these programs is independent of the BSTP program. The requirements for
admission and graduation in this program may differ relative to the BSTP programs.
Contact faculty:
Paul
DiCorleto, Ph.D.
Participating Staff
The Case Western
Reserve University graduate programs include the M.S., Ph.D., and Ph.D./M.D.
in Biomedical Engineering. Collaborative projects with The Cleveland Clinic
Foundation's Department of Biomedical Engineering are encouraged. The M.S.
program in Biomedical Engineering provides broad training in biomedical engineering
and biomedical sciences with depth in an engineering specialty. In addition,
students are expected to develop the ability to work independently on a biomedical
research or design project. For those students with primary interest in research,
the Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering provides additional depth and breadth
in both engineering and the biomedical sciences. Under faculty guidance, students
are expected to undertake original research motivated by a biomedical problem.
Participating Staff
The Lerner Research
Institute of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and the Department of Chemistry
of Cleveland State University are offering a unique Ph.D. program in Clinical-
Bioanalytical Chemistry. The program is open to highly qualified college graduates
majoring in chemistry, biology, biochemistry, molecular biology and medical
technology. Selected students may conduct dissertation research with the internationally
recognized faculty members of the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland
Clinic Foundation or the University's outstanding clinical- bioanalytical faculty.
The program is further enhanced by affiliation with MetroHealth Medical Center
of Cleveland. The Ph.D. program has a first-class team of nearly 50 faculty
members, 30 of which are located at the Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland
Clinic Foundation. State-of-the-art research facilities and expertise are available
at both the Cleveland Clinic and the University, including cutting-edge technologies
in such areas as mass spectrometry, IR and NMR spectroscopy, HPLC, capillary
electrophoresis, X-ray crystallography, X-ray fluorescence, atomic absorption
spectroscopy, and chip technology. The distinctive collaboration between the
Cleveland Clinic and the University provides the highest level of training and
research experience. Instruction and research in an applied setting of disease
diagnosis are integral components of the doctoral program. Cleveland State University
has awarded more doctorates in Clinical Chemistry than any other university
in the United States.
Contact faculty:
Donald
Jacobsen, Ph.D.
Participating Staff
The PhD in Regulatory
Biology at Cleveland State University is offered as a joint program between
Cleveland State and the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
In addition to the Biology faculty at the Department
of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences of Cleveland State
University, students may choose to work with over 15 faculty at the Cleveland
Clinic Foundation. This provides students with broad opportunities for study
in diverse areas of biology, including biomedical research and all of its subspecialties
as well as areas such as ecology, environmental studies and geology. Students
in the program generally spend the first one to two years taking coursework
in selected areas at Cleveland State and then spend the remainder of their time
in research laboratories at either site, completing their thesis research. Acceptance
as a doctoral candidate is granted after students have written and orally defended
a competitive grant proposal, usually after most of the coursework has been
completed. Students are generally supported by a teaching assistantship or a
research assistantship, both of which include tuition. The program graduates
3-5 PhD students per year, most of whom continue in careers either in teaching
or research.
Contact faculty:
Alan
Wolfman, Ph.D.
Participating Staff
Other Student opportunities
available at the Department of Cell Biology
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation has developed a unique collaboration
in training with the Morehouse
School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. The agreement involves programs
in both clinical medicine and biomedical research. In the former, medical students
and residents can opt to train at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in a variety
of specialties and for varying lengths of time. There are opportunities for
Morehouse medical students to do summer research related to ongoing projects
in the basic science laboratories of the Lerner Research Institute. In addition,
graduate students seeking their Ph.D.'s under the guidance of a primary research
supervisor on the Morehouse School of Medicine faculty can opt to choose a secondary
supervisor with common or complimentary research interests from among the Lerner
Research Institute's Staff members, and perform a portion (for example, 9 to
18 months) of their Ph.D. research in the selected CCF Laboratory. The program
affords participating Morehouse Ph.D. students access and exposure to two laboratory
facilities, two faculties, two research communities, etc. It also affords the
primary Morehouse School of Medicine and secondary Cleveland Clinic Foundation
supervisors the opportunity to collaborate in research where they have common
interests. Funds to support the joint research training program are available
through a grant from the Nordson Corporation Foundation and a training grant
in cardiovascular research from NIH (NHLBI).
- Contact Faculty at CCF:
- Guy M. Chisolm, Ph.D.
Together with John Carroll University, the Cleveland Clinic
sponsors an undergraduate summer research program, designed to provide opportunities
for undergraduate students to work beside research scientists during their summer
vacations. Biology, chemistry, physics / math and psychology students from John
Carroll University are eligible for this program. The students are selected
by a committee of John Carroll University faculty and are then matched with
a suitable mentor at the Cleveland Clinic. On the average, 15 - 25 students
are placed in research settings at the Cleveland Clinic each summer. Stipends
are provided by the Cleveland Clinic and on-campus housing is provided by John
Carroll. Students work an average of ten full-time weeks, and many continue
during the school year or during the following summer. Opportunities are available
on an individual basis for students to use their research experience as an independent
study or other part of their degree requirements at John Carroll.
Contact faculty:
Christine Moravec, Ph.D.
