Welcome
The Graduate Group in Cell and Developmental Biology offers programs leading to the Ph.D. or M.S. degree. The group includes more than 50 faculty members with varied interests in molecular mechanisms underlying cell structure and function, differentiation, reproductive biology and embryonic development. Incoming students are therefore able to select laboratories suited to their own research interests and career goals.
Graduate groups were developed at Davis twenty years ago as alternatives to departmental programs. In a graduate group, students and faculty are not limited to a single department. For instance, in the Cell and Developmental Biology Group, faculty members are drawn from 18 different sections or departments. This provides diverse training opportunities, both in terms of research areas and major instrumentation available to support research.
Entering students in the Ph.D. program are not required to identify a major professor before enrollment, but students should make themselves familiar with research opportunities before their arrival. E-mail contact with the group chair and individual group members during and after the application process is encouraged. Major professors are officially selected during the fall and winter quarters, when the students take required techniques and laboratory rotation courses.
If a student and potential major professor identify mutual interests during the application process, the student may choose to be quartered in a specific group member's laboratory during the lab rotation period. During the first quarter at Davis, the student meets with a graduate group adviser to establish required and recommended course work, largely based on the student's research interest. At the end of the second year in residence, the student takes the qualifying examination required for advancement to candidacy. After passing the examination, the student undertakes full-time research that leads to the doctoral dissertation. Normally the doctoral degree can be completed in five years.
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