Description
The Doctoral Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology (BCM) offers a unique multidisciplinary educational experience leading to the title of Doctor of Philosophy, the highest level of academic education in Italy. The Department of Biology, in partnership with several private and public institutions not only located in the Rome area, sponsors two Doctoral Courses hosting more than 70 doctoral students and has outlined a Program that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries to offer students high-level research projects and training focused on complementary skills in a wide variety of biological, biotechnological and environmental research topics that are needed to address the scientific challenges of the future.
The PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology offers a broad spectrum of scientific activities and methodologies and is aimed at training enthusiastic and highly motivated candidates on their path towards a scientific career in basic, translational and computational research. Research groups participating in this program cover the areas of biochemistry, genomics and bioinformatics, molecular and structural biology, systems biology, cancer and neurological diseases, microbiology, botany and plant physiology.
The Doctorate provides the skills necessary to carry out high-quality research activities both in public and private institutions, for the development of scientific and technological progress, contributing to the creation of a ruling class with a high-level professional background and a corresponding international approach, as documented by students who have achieved brilliant academic and research goals. The course is highly sought-after by new graduate students in various fields due to the high qualification of the teachers belonging to the College, as well as by the entire community that carries out research and teaching in the proposing Department.
Objective
The Doctoral Course in Cellular and Molecular Biology is implemented through two curricula (experimental and bioinformatics) and aims to train students capable of contributing to the progress of science in various fields, such as molecular biology, cellular biology, cellular biochemistry, molecular genetics and bioinformatics. The students' training path is mainly aimed at studying and researching in projects coordinated by the teaching body, creating and publishing the results in medium/high impact journals. The study program of the bioinformatics curriculum also includes research projects concerning the analysis and meta-analysis of high-throughput data to interpret biological complexity through new omics technologies: genomics, transcriptomics (RNA-seq both in bulk and single-cell), proteomics; development of methods for predicting the interaction between molecules (protein-protein, protein-nucleic acids, proteins-drugs), also through network analysis.
The training program allows students to acquire scientific and technical skills, key factors in a scientific career as an independent researcher. The final objective is to bring students to a stage of training suitable for inclusion in research activity, as it is currently practiced at an international level in the fields of expertise of the doctorate. Each student carries out their doctoral program within a research group in which the supervisor and co-supervisor will be identified and have the responsibility of following the research activities carried out and planning future ones to achieve the objectives of the project of doctoral thesis.
To this end, the following intermediate training objectives are pursued: full acquisition of the experimental method, ability to identify the relevant variables in the different experimental conditions; knowledge of the most up-to-date experimental methods suitable for answering the scientific questions that one's research intends to answer; development of systematization capabilities in the collection of experimental materials and data through the use of appropriate methods that allow exchange with the rest of the scientific community; building a wealth of knowledge regarding the most modern and suitable analysis methods of experimental data in the respective fields of investigation; knowledge and use of relevant databases for the purposes of one's research; knowledge of the literature of interest and its continuous updating; development of clarity and expository synthesis skills; ability to identify the implications of one's research on the public health, biotechnology and industrial productions.
Mobility of PhD students
Mobility is particularly encouraged, also thanks to funds specifically allocated to the doctoral student. Mobility includes:
- participation in national and international conferences and congresses;
- short-term period abroad to universities or research centers to carry out experiments that cannot be performed on site;
- meetings at a national or international level with research groups collaborating on the research project;
- any other activity useful for completing the research project.
Some types of scholarships require a MINIMUM period of stay abroad
Employment opportunities
The doctoral activities are aimed at training researchers who can be included in the research activities of public and private Institutions. Some of the doctors continue their training with a post-doctoral period in the laboratory where they acquired their Ph.D. Others continue their training in Italy or abroad, in academic and non-academic fields (small and medium-sized companies with a focus on biotechnology, Scientific Hospitalization and Care Institutes (IRCSS), hospital companies that include applied research groups). Very frequently, the post-doctoral period ends with a fixed-term employment contract. About 10% of doctors dedicate themselves to teaching, while 20% find employment in activities related to the health service. The doctors of the bioinformatics curriculum are for now completely absorbed in research laboratories, taking advantage of the fact that the acquired expertise is still not very available compared to the needs of the research laboratories and departments.
Curriculum
CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY: EXPERIMENTAL
The Doctorate in Cellular and Molecular Biology offers a broad spectrum of scientific activities and methodologies in the student's path towards a scientific career in basic, translational and computational research. The curriculum of the Experimental curriculum includes the areas of biochemistry, genomics and bioinformatics, cancer and neurological diseases, molecular biology, microbiology and plant physiology. Through their training, BCM-Experimental PhD students will be able to: analyze a scientific problem and define specific biological questions, to be addressed through various experimental approaches. This includes formulating hypotheses in order to design experiments, construct a time plan and define logical outcomes; draw conclusions based on statistically significant results; set research results for publication in international journals; independently propose project ideas; submit protocols to the agencies supervising the research, such as the ethics committee, for evaluation.
CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY: BIOINFORMATICS
The study program of the Bioinformatics curriculum includes research projects concerning the study of the sequences, structures and functions of macromolecules of biological interest (nucleic acids, proteins, ligands of various types, including drugs); study and development of approaches involving basic disciplines, such as genetics, biochemistry, structural and systems biology, proteomics and interactomics; the analysis and meta-analysis of high-throughput data to interpret biological complexity through new omics technologies: genomics, transcriptomics (RNA-seq both in bulk and single-cell), proteomics; development of methods for predicting the interaction between molecules (protein-protein, protein-nucleic acids, proteins-drugs), also through network analysis. Through their training, BCM-Bioinformatics PhD students will be able to: analyze a scientific problem and define specific biological questions, to be addressed through various experimental approaches. This includes formulating hypotheses in order to design experiments, construct a time plan and define logical outcomes; draw conclusions based on statistically significant results; set research results for publication in international journals; independently propose project ideas.
Teaching and research activities
The teaching activities are carried out through a busy calendar of courses and seminars, in English, held by professors of the Doctoral School College and by external national and international experts. The duration of the doctoral course is three years. In particular, the dedicated educational program includes frontal lessons, which cover advanced topics, including: experimental models for cellular and molecular biology studies; omics technologies for biology; research funded by the European Union and basic knowledge on the protection of Intellectual Property.
Each student is responsible for a personal research project, is tutored by a supervisor and a co-supervisor and may spend a period at a foreign research institute. In addition to the commitment dedicated mainly to experimental activity, students participate in internal doctoral seminars, every two weeks, to report the progress of their research, and in scientific seminars by national and international researchers. Furthermore, in the last year of the doctorate, students follow a course "Development of skills for doctoral students" aimed at developing and fine-tuning the writing and presentation skills necessary to publish scientific works, apply for funding and scholarships and disseminate science in different contexts.
At the end of each academic year, a scientific workshop is organized in which innovative research in the biomolecular and cellular fields is presented by national and international experts in the context of biology, biomedicine and bioinformatics. The workshop is organized by the third year students of the doctoral school with the supervision of the coordinator and some teachers of the college. Therefore, students are involved in choosing the speakers to invite, in writing the invitation letters, specifying the reason and purpose of the workshop. They are also involved in the function of chairman of the scientific sessions and in the administrative organization following the assignment of a budget decided together with the coordinator.
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