Applicants and nominees are reviewed by the STTP Advisory Committee, which selects students based on prior and current academic achievement and the appropriateness of their scientific and research interests to the goals of this training program. In their first year, our students all take the GEMS program core curriculum in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Integrated Physiology, Research Methods, and two course selections in Integrative Biology in Development, Cancer and Immunology, Molecular Genetics, Receptor Pharmacology and Cell Signaling, Cell Physiology, or Structure of Biopolymers. The core curriculum includes a minimum of three required 10-week research rotations in faculty laboratories of interest to the student for possible thesis research, after which students choose a mentor in a participating Department of the STTP.. While participating in research rotations, first year students are also required to attend departmental journal clubs and research seminars in the department in which they are performing their rotation. Importantly, all students must take GC401 - Scientific Integrity and Responsible Conduct of Research within their first two years, and students whose research involves animals are also required to take GC470 - Essentials for Animal Research.

In the spring of each year (late May), potential STTP trainee candidates who have chosen or are already working in one of our faculty trainers’ laboratories for their thesis research are invited to attend and if possible present a poster at the annual one-day Greater Chicago Signal Transduction Symposium that features 8 invited speakers at the cutting edge of their fields and a poster session of submitted abstracts by predoctoral trainees and postdoctoral fellows. Based on both individual departmental graduate program course requirements, and in consultation with their advisor, students in their second year of the GEMS program develop a further course of study that best meets their own needs, interests and thesis research. A variety of required and elective 500 level graduate courses are offered by each of the basic science Departments, and students choose further coursework from these. Graduate level courses in relevant areas of biochemistry, molecular genetics, physiology and biophysics, molecular biology, microbiology and immunology, pharmacology, anatomy and cell biology are available. Students must fulfill the requirements of the Departmental graduate program into which they are admitted in their first or second year, and their Ph.D. is obtained from that Department. For students whose mentors may be in a clinical section or department, e.g. Medicine, the students are jointly enrolled in the doctoral program of the mentor’s basic science department affiliation, and must fulfill the requirements of that Department for completion of their doctorate. Student applicants are chosen based upon their academic excellence and spectrum of interests. More senior graduate students already resident in the trainers’ labs may also be nominated or apply for admission to the STTP as well. Departmental and college-wide seminar series at UIC bring high profile scientists to the campus. Trainees in the STTP participate in signal transduction seminars, molecular and cellular biology research seminars, departmental seminars and visiting professor seminars. Outside departmental seminar series speakers are frequently scheduled to have lunch and research discussions with graduate students in the department sponsoring the seminar. Multidisciplinary approaches reflecting the research interests of the faculty are emphasized in STTP participating department based yearly seminar series at UIC. Training of STTP appointees involves all facets of research from the formulation of the hypotheses, sound experimental design, execution of the experiments, data and statistical analyses, to the writing and submission of manuscripts for publication, and fellowship and grant writing. During their second year of support, all STTP trainees are expected to write and submit a predoctoral NRSA or other appropriate predoctoral fellowship application on their chosen research project for the purpose of developing experience and skills in writing grants.