Graduate Program Overview

Degrees Offered

The Animal Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences graduate program, a part of the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences offers the following degrees:

• Master of Science (MS)
• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Program Goals

• To prepare scientists for future careers in academia or industry in the areas of animal biotechnology and/or biomedicine by providing them with experience in hypothesis formulation, problem solving and experimental design.
• To provide research opportunities in areas of immunology, infectious disease, developmental biology, reproductive biology and toxicology.
• To instill in students an understanding of hypothesis-driven experimental design and the desire to deepen scientific knowledge.

The core of the graduate program is the deep commitment of the active research faculty to provide a quality graduate education. The collaborative environment of our research groups strengthens the learning environment for graduate students. The involvement of faculty within interdisciplinary programs brings a wide variety of students to our laboratories and seminars and promotes interactions across campus. The faculty attract post-doctoral fellows from around the world and their presence invigorates the research enterprise, thus students do not work in isolation but are part of both the departmental program as well as interdepartmental research communities including the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, Neuroscience and Behavior Program, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Program and the Collaborative Biomedical Research Program.

Research in the Animal Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences graduate program is supported by a variety of sources. Faculty hold grants from the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development as well as from private industry, foundations and the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station.   Our graduates are continually placed in excellent career and post-doctoral positions, nationally and internationally.

Program Requirements

See the ABBS Graduate Handbook for details on program requirements, courses, rules and milestones.

The main emphasis of the graduate program is hands on laboratory research. Students supplement lab work with a variety of coursework as well as research seminars  and journal clubs. Required courses provide a strong foundation in biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, immunology and infectious diseases, as well as genetics and developmental biology.   Doctoral students must pass written and oral comprehensive qualifying exams and both Ph.D. and M.S. students must pass a final oral defense of their thesis research. All graduate students form a thesis committee of faculty members who meet regularly with the student to provide guidance and assess progress.

The Fifth Year Masters is for students who are undergraduates in the department and begin research in a laboratory during their junior year. During their senior year they develop their research skills and take 6 credits of coursework towards their Masters degree. To complete the Fifth Years Masters requires 12-15 months after the B.S. degree and includes a combination of research work for independent study credit plus 6-8 additional coursework credits.

Application & Admission to the Program

Our program accepts new students on a rolling basis but rotating PhD students are only accepted for the Fall semester; we generally accept 1- 4 per year. The application deadline is January 15th. Generally, Masters with thesis and Ph.D. students are accepted by individual faculty members directly into their laboratories, that is, students generally do not undertake laboratory rotations. Thus students are encouraged to contact individual faculty members directly about their research programs and the availability of space and financial support in their laboratories.

Research Faculty

         Immunology

Applications can also be obtained from the address below. Frequently asked graduate school admission questions can be viewed here, For general information, visit the UMass Graduate School web site. 

To check on status of your application, please go here.

Graduate Admissions
Phone: 413-545-0722 (8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Mon-Fri)
Email: gradadm [at] grad [dot] umass [dot] edu

For other inquiries about the program itself:

Graduate Program Director
Kathleen Arcaro, PhD
240 Thatcher Road
LSL 1 Room N529
Amherst, MA 01003-9298
413-577-1823
karacaro [at] umass [dot] edu
  

Financial Aid

Students (U.S. citizen and foreign) are eligible for research or teaching assistantships. Except for non-thesis masters students, graduate students accepted into the program are provided with financial support from individual faculty members (that is, the research supervisor). Research assistants and teaching assistants receive full-time renumeration in addition to having tuition and medical insurance paid for. Students admitted to the program are responsible for finding their own transportation to and from Amherst, Massachusetts. International students must remain registered as full-time students during their stay to maintain visa status.  In addition to the research and teaching assistantships, students may apply for competitive pre-doctoral fellowship at:

• UMass Graduate School
• National Science Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship (GRFP)
• National Institutes of Health NRSA Pre-doctoral Training Fellowship (F31, selected NIH componenets)
• Grantsnet (search for more fellowships)
• Grant Search for Graduate Students

Interdepartmental Graduate Programs

Students admitted through other graduate programs on campus may join the research groups in our department if the major advisor (PI) is a member of that program. Interdepartmental programs which our students may be interested in include:

• Neuroscience and Behavior Program
• Molecular and Cellular Biology Program
• Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Program