The Three Institutions
The Graduate Program in Genetics involves faculty from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. These three institutions are located in the beautiful and historic North Shore area of Long Island. The semi-rural setting provides students with a safe, secluded environment in which to pursue their studies. In addition, the close proximity of New York City offers a wealth of diverse cultural experiences, while Long Island's beaches and parks offer all sorts of outdoor recreation and relaxation.
Faculty members from the three institutions actively participate in all aspects of the graduate program. During the course of selecting a mentor, students are encouraged to rotate in laboratories at each of the institutions. At the present time, roughly forty percent of our students are conducting their Ph.D. research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. A small number have completed their dissertation research at Brookhaven, though, historically, most students pursue their research at Stony Brook.
The Graduate Program is run by a Director and an Executive Committee composed of faculty and senior graduate student representatives from the participating institutions. The Program Director and all members of the Executive Committee are elected by their peers, and student representatives to this committee have full voting rights and responsibilities. The degree awarding authority of the Genetics Graduate Program is approved by and vested in the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Financial Aid
All students who are accepted into the program are accepted with full support. The current (2006-2007) stipend level is $25,000 per calendar year. In addition, all students are granted full tuition scholarships. All domestic students are expected to establish New York State residency in a timely fashion, as the tuition scholarship for U.S. Citizens and permanent residents is granted at the in-state tuition rate after the first semester. International students receive full scholarships at the out-of-state rate. All graduate students are also offered group health insurance benefits at little or no expense.
All graduate students are expected to participate in undergraduate teaching for two semesters. These teaching obligations usually occur during the Spring semester of the student’s first year and Fall semester of the second year.
The Genetics Program has an NIH Predoctoral Training Grant and most eligible first year students are supported by NIH training fellowships.
The primary facilities at Stony Brook for the Genetics Program are the Life Sciences Building, the Centers for Molecular Medicine and the Health Sciences Center. These structures are in close proximity. As a result, graduate students in Genetics also have an opportunity to interact with clinical faculty members of the School of Medicine. The Life Sciences Building is home to the Departments of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Ecology and Evolution, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, and Neurobiology and Behavior. The facility also includes a greenhouse, an electronics shop, a refrigeration shop, a general stockroom, and animal facilities.
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Adjacent to the Life Sciences building is the Centers for Molecular Medicine (CMM Building), featuring modern laboratories and an unusual approach to research space. Arranged by program, rather than by department, this arrangement promotes maximum interaction among those with common research interests, regardless of their departmental affiliations. The four interdepartmental research programs in the CMM are the Center for Developmental Genetics, the Center for Infectious Diseases, the Center for Cancer Genetics and Cancer Biology, and the Center for Structural Biology.
- The Health Sciences Center houses the Departments of Physiology and Biophysics, Pathology, Pharmacological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering and other departments of the School of Medicine. Many of the clinical departments are located in the Clinical Sciences Tower, which is adjacent to the 504-bed tertiary acute care University Hospital. The Health Sciences Center complex has a full array of support facilities, including a machine shop, medical electronics shop, stockroom, carpentry shop, and similar operations. A major animal facility, the Laboratory Animal Research Center, is maintained within the Basic Sciences Tower.
- A variety of centralized university services are available. These include: the Monoclonal Antibody/Tissue Culture Center; an in-house Oligonucleotide Synthesis Service; a transgenic mouse facility; the Center for Analysis and Synthesis of Macromolecules (CASM) which provides service and expertise in protein microsequencing, peptide synthesis, and amino acid analysis; the Mass Spectrometer Facility at Stony Brook; and the Stony Brook Biological Imaging Center, which has facilities for performing high resolution light, confocal microscopy, and transmission/scanning electron microscopy.
- All of the Stony Brook departments have placed a major emphasis on the implementation of computer technology to facilitate their research and academic activities. In addition, central computer facilities are equipped with several large and small mainframes (IBM and DEC) these are accessible to faculty and students through campus networks and telephone lines. A Silicon Graphics computer, as well as graphics workstations are available (also reached via computer network) for molecular modeling calculations in the Health Sciences Center.
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Several libraries are available on the Stony Brook campus. The Frank Melville, Jr. Memorial Library contains more than 1.7 million bound volumes and more than 2 million volumes in micro format, as well as extensive on-line resources. The Health Sciences Center library contains biological and medical books and journals presently totaling 250,510 volumes, including 4,374 serials and periodicals. Many departments also maintain their own topical libraries.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a fully equipped and independent institution. It is both a major research and conference center. All the necessary equipment for molecular biological and other studies is available, including facilities for X-ray crystallography.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory includes 28 major buildings, of which eleven are wholly devoted to the conduct and support of scientific research. The Neuroscience Center which opened in spring 1991 has further expanded its research base. In addition, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has a number of service facilities headed by a member of the senior scientific staff, which are available for your research. These facilities include:
- Harris animal facility. This facility houses and provides care for animals. Most standard animal-related services are provided (e.g., injections with antigens, and bleeds for anti-sera) by Harris staff.
- Monoclonal antibody facility. This facility exists for producing monoclonal antibodies once an antigen has been provided.
- Freeman center. The Laboratory has two Sun microcomputers, three MicroVaxIIs, and five MassComps. Offices throughout the Laboratory contain either IBM or Macintosh personal computers (over 200 individual PCs). The PCs and the mainframe computers are linked to each other via Ethernet, and the Lab is connected to other computers via Bitnet. A full range of computing services is available (e.g., programming).
- Flow Cytometry. A flow cytometry service is available.
- Protein Chemistry. The protein chemistry service includes synthesis of oligopeptides, final purification of proteins by HPLC or electrophoresis, fragmentation of proteins by enzymatic or chemical cleavage, peptide maps and isolation of peptides by HPLC, amino acid analysis, micro-sequencing, and mass spectrometrical analysis. State-of-the-art equipment for microsequencing is available. Peptides are routinely synthesized for use as antigens.
- Electron Microscopy. The E.M. facility includes scanning, transmission, and confocal microscopes, an image analysis system, and accessories and full technical support.
- Oligonucleotide Synthesis facility. Several DNA oligonucleotide synthesis machines are available and are operated as a service. Oligonucleotides are produced within two to three days of being ordered.
- 2D Gel facility. A large facility exists for running and analyzing 2 dimensional gels. Samples are provided by individual investigators, but subsequent manipulations can be left to facility staff.
- Workshop. A fully equipped and staffed electro-mechanical workshop and machine shop is available.
- Uplands Farm. Uplands Farm and greenhouse are available for studies on Zea mays and other plants. Plant rooms are available in the Delbruck lab for the study of Arabidopsis thaliana.
The Biology Department is housed largely in a single building, with additional office space and computer facilities for structural biology in an adjacent building. The Department is fully equipped for research in molecular genetics, and it operates greenhouses, fields and growth chambers for plant genetics and has access to animal facilities in the Medical Department. Facilities for structural biology include stations for x-ray diffraction and UV spectroscopy at the National Synchrotron Light Source, stations for neutron diffraction at the High Flux Beam Reactor, and a high resolution Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy facility in the Biology Department itself. Computers and molecular graphics workstations in the Department are linked to each other and to the Central Scientific Computer Facility through ethernet. Capabilities within individual research programs are available to the entire Department, and include oligonucleotide synthesis, automated DNA and protein sequencing, and automated scanning and analysis of fluorescent gel electrophoresis patterns.
- The Oligonucleotide Synthesis/DNA Sequencing Facility. This facility is equipped with a state-of-the-art solid phase DNA synthesizer that can synthesize deoxy or ribo oligonucleotides and a 24 channel automated DNA sequencer. Other equipment available include standard sequencing gel apparatuses, power supplies, and pulse-field electrophoresis systems to separate large DNA fragments and whole chromosomes.
Protein Sequence Analysis Facility. This facility is equipped with a sequencer for radiochemical sequence analysis, a "gas-phase" microsequencer with on-line analysis of PTH-amino acids, HPLC unit with diode array detector and autosampler, high performance electrophoresis unit and an amino acid analyzer.
- Computer facilities. The resources of the Central Scientific Computer Facility at BNL are availableSilicon Graphics Workstations. Several proprietary sequence manipulation packages are available and we have developed our own independent program, GCIRC, to address our specific sequence analysis problems.