The Morehouse School of Medicine offers a unique program of study toward the Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences degree. The program comprises a core curriculum that provides a broad grounding in biomedical sciences followed by specialized training in one of a variety of research fields. 

Curriculum Overview (click for course overview).
The first year of required courses comprises two parallel course sequences:

The Graduate Cell Biology sequence covers fundamental aspects of biochemistry; cell, tissue, organ, and organ-system structure and function; as well as an introduction to biomedical genetics. Each component of the sequence is accompanied by a laboratory course that introduces relevant research methods and instrumentation through hands-on laboratory projects.

The Fundamentals of Professional Science sequence covers issues of scientific ethics and professionalism, scientific writing skills, and include colloquia introducing research opportunities at the Morehouse School of Medicine, and future career opportunities. In addition, during the first year, students take a Fundamentals of Biostatistics course and complete a minimum of two eight-week Laboratory Rotations to assist them in their evaluation of potential mentors.

Qualifying Exam Part 1 - After completing the required coursework, students take a comprehensive exam covering all first-year Graduate Cell Biology course work to assure they have an adequate fund of knowledge to proceed to more specialized training.

Upon successful completion of the first-year core curriculum and the comprehensive exam, each student identifies a mentor for advanced study and research.  Students may study with graduate faculty from various basic and clinical science departments in a variety of research focus areas. Each student then selects elective courses with the approval of the mentor and begins supervised research in the advisor's laboratory.  During this period, the student selects, with mentor approval, a research project and faculty members to serve on their dissertation committee.

Qualifying Exam Part 2 - After completing the elective courses, the student's dissertation committee must certify that the student has completed the coursework necessary to pursue a Ph.D. in the field they have chosen.

Qualifying Exam Part 3 - Within one year of completing Qualifying Exam Part 1, the student must prepare and defend a proposal for dissertation research to the satisfaction of the dissertation committee. Ph.D. Candidacy - Once they have successfully completed all 3 parts of the qualifying exam process, students with at least a cumulative B average in their coursework may apply to advance to Ph.D. Candidacy. Typically this occurs near the end of the second year.

Dissertation Research - Once students achieve candidacy, they focus on their dissertation research and may begin accumulating the dissertation research credits required for graduation under the direction of the mentor and dissertation committee.