PHD, Regenerative Bioscience

Degree Program Summary:

Regenerative bioscience research is poised to have a transformative impact on healthcare and medicine. The development of novel cellular therapies, artificial organs, biomaterials, diagnostic technologies, and medical devices that enable rapid and accurate monitoring of injury and disease progression offers new hope in treating a wide range of injuries and diseases. The UGA Regenerative Bioscience Center (RBC) in collaboration with the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES) has designed the Regenerative Bioscience (RB) Ph.D. program to provide students advanced interdisciplinary training opportunities in cell therapy biomanufacturing, stem cells, biomaterials for tissue engineering, gene therapy, and biomedical imaging. In addition to providing training in these areas, the major also aims to prepare students for academic and non-academic careers by providing ample opportunities for entrepreneurship and technology commercialization training.

The RB Ph.D. program is based on dissertation research and requires a total of 30 h of graduate credit, 16 credit hours or more of courses intended for doctoral students ( >8000 level ), a minimum of 3 credit hours of graduate level statistics, and a minimum of 3 credit hours each of doctoral research and doctoral dissertation. The 16 credit hours of doctoral level coursework (>8000) should include at least 6 credit hours of Regenerative Bioscience courses (RBIO). Students who bypass a master’s degree must hold a bachelor’s degree in a science-related field (e.g., Biology, Cell Biology, etc) and are required to take an additional 4 credit hours or graduate level (6000/8000) course work.

Graduate courses are taught by RB faculty experts in stem cell biology, nervous system injuries, neurodegenerative disease, cancer biology, musculoskeletal disease and other RB areas of research. RB laboratories provide access to equipment and resources for learning laboratory skills and conducting animal studies, which are critical for biomedical research. RBC faculty have developed strong federal and privately funded research programs, which have provided training opportunities for a number of graduate students who are pursuing successful careers in federal agencies, industry, and academia.

Research and teaching assistantships are available to qualified candidates based on availability of both departmental and research grant funds of individual faculty. Students on assistantship support are eligible to receive a tuition waiver from the UGA graduate school. Prospective graduate students who desire financial aid may apply for assistance directly to the Graduate Coordinator or individual RB faculty.