Modern biology integrates the latest technological breakthroughs, enabling scientists to illuminate development, physiology, and disease with molecular precision. The CMSB program trains the next generation of research scientists in cutting edge molecular, cellular and systems approaches to study fundamental biomedical sciences. The program offers a unique combination of molecular genetics and genomics, single cell biology and high-resolution imaging techniques together with computational and informatics-based analyses. Students apply this knowledge in laboratories across the University of Pittsburgh, uncovering fundamental mechanisms that underpin basic cell structure and function, fertility and reproduction, developmental and stem cell biology, ageing and evolutionary biology at a systems level. Their discoveries will expand our understanding of physiology in health and in disease and contribute to the development of treatments across medicine.
Key features of the CMSB include:
- Providing didactic, lecture-based instruction in fundamental and contemporary aspects of systems and computational biology, structural biology, molecular biology, cell biology and cellular signaling. Reinforcement of formal didactic teaching with small group discussions led by faculty experts through workshops that are in place in the Foundations of Biomedical Science course.
- Providing courses with cohesive themes to facilitate students’ interest in the material, promoting gradual conceptual progression in the classroom with laboratory-based skill building that includes computational approaches.
- Engaging students early in research in core competencies of mentors’ laboratories with emphasis on multidisciplinary approaches to important research questions.
This is a new program starting in Fall 2026 that combines faculty expertise from the ISB, CBMP and MGDB graduate programs in the School of Medicine.
Faculty participating in CMSB can be found at the current faculty pages for the three programs:
ISB faculty and research interests
CBMP faculty and research interests
MGDB faculty and research interests
We will begin accepting applications beginning October 1, 2025 for admission to Fall 2026.