Graduate Study in MBBE

The Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering (MBBE) graduate program is a truly interdisciplinary graduate program centered around the molecular biosciences and branching into applications within tropical agriculture, biological and biomedical sciences, and engineering.  The program’s scope includes molecular biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, cell biology, biotechnology, and engineering aspects of plant science, tropical agriculture, aquaculture, environmental bioremediation, bioprocessing, and biomedical sciences.

COLLABORATIONS

Currently, many MBBE graduate students are supervised by faculty from John A. Burns School of Medicine, Cancer Research Center, Pacific Biomedical Research Center, Queens Medical Center, Hawaii Agricultural Research Center, Sea Grant College Program, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, College of Engineering and several departments including Microbiology, Zoology, Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, and Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences.  

GRADUATE DEGREES IN THE MBBE DEPARTMENT

The MBBE Graduate Program offers both MS and Ph.D. degrees.  This program emphasizes research and training that seek to further our knowledge and understanding of the biochemical, nutritional and molecular-biological processes that underlie growth, development, photosynthesis, and stress, especially as related to tropical agriculture, aquaculture, plant and environmental biotechnology, and biomedical sciences.

• Minimum qualifications for admittance are:
  1.  an undergraduate degree from an accredited U.S. college or university or equivalent degree from a recognized foreign institution of higher learning
  2. A grade point averate (GPA) of at least 3.0 on a scale of 4.0
• All prospective students must submit scores of the GRE General Test.  In special cases, submission of scores may be delayed with permission of the Graduate Division.  
• International students may be required to submit english proficency exam scores.
• All applicants are expected to have completed courses or equivalents in physics, chemistry, basic biology, genetics, biochemistry, physiology and one additional upper division course in cellular or molecular biology. While not a requirement, physical chemistry is highly recommended.  Students may be accepted with deficiencies in one or more of these areas, however deficiencies must be made up during the first year of enrollment and and will not count toward graduation requirements. 

Application Deadlines

• Fall April 30

• Spring September 30

How to Apply

Applicants submit the following to Graduate Division Student Services

• completed Graduate Admissions Application
• application fee
• one transcript for each post-secondary institution attended

International Applicants

To be eligible to apply for admission, international applicants need to meet admissions criteria and documentation requirements as stated on the Graduate Admissions website.

MBBE Specific Requirements

Program specific documentation for admission must be submitted through the Office of Graduate Education Supplemental Materials website.  Unoffical transcripts and GRE scores may be submitted with the applications documents.  Official transcripts and GRE scores must be submitted prior to being allowed to enroll.

• Statement of objective
• Three Letters of Recommendation
• GRE exam scores (official GRE scores must be submitted to be allowed to enroll)
• Curriculum Vitae (recommended)
• Unofficial transcripts (official transcripts must be submitted to be allowed to enroll)

Official Transcripts

Official transcripts must be sent to Graduate Division Student Services directly from the issuing institution(s), or in sealed institutional envelopes if submitted with the application.

Graduate Division
2540 Maile Way
Spalding Hall 354
Honolulu, HI 96822

Official GRE Scores

Official GRE scores must be sent directly to Graduate Division Student Services. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) code for UHM is 4867. In general, test scores cannot be more than five years old.

General Requirements for MS Plan-A

Minimum Course Requirements

Twelve credits of 600-level courses (not including MBBE 699), six credits of 400 level courses (not including MBBE 499), six credits of MBBE 699 and six credits of MBBE 700 (or alternatively with 699 transfers – 11 Cr MBBE 699 + 1 Cr MBBE 700).  The list of approved courses is presented elsewhere.  Your major advisor and the Graduate Chair must approve all courses to be taken.  Graduate students are encouraged to take one credit seminar (MBBE 610 or equivalent) each academic year.  At least one seminar credit is required for a MS degree.  The thesis proposal or defense seminar cannot be used to meet this requirement. At least 51% of courses counting towards degree completion must be MBBE courses.

Two-Page Proposal

All MS students shall define and discuss their research projects with their major advisors and write a two-page research proposal with specific objectives within the first semester.

Thesis Proposal Seminar

All MS students need to present their preliminary results and plan of research in a proposal seminar within one year of their entrance into MBBE.  MS students who conduct research in laboratories outside the Manoa campus may present their proposal seminars in their laboratory locations.

CTAHR Symposium Presentation

MS plan-A students must make at least one presentation in the CTAHR symposium. They are also encouraged to make presentations in other national and international conferences.

Thesis Defense

MS plan-A students must make a public presentation of their thesis research in the final semester (preferably within two years of their entrance into MBBE).  Students should consult with their committee and the Graduate Chair in advance to ensure a convenient and available date for this presentation that will also meet Graduate Division deadlines.  (Note that Graduate Division deadlines change each year.)  A hardcopy seminar notice/invitation must be posted in visible places in the department and other appropriate locations.  A seminar notice must also be sent by email to all MBBE and BE graduate faculty and students.

Publication

Students are encouraged to publish a paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal before the defense date.  In publications, the MBBE departmental address should appear as the student’s primary or secondary address. For details, please see the online “General guidelines and requirements for PhD degree in MBBE.” 

General Requirements for MS Plan-B

Minimum Course Requirements

Eighteen credits of 600-level courses (excluding MBBE 699), nine credits of 400-level courses (excluding MBBE 499), three credits of MBBE 699.  Graduate students are encouraged to take one credit of MBBE 610 or equivalent each academic year.  At least one seminar credit is required for a MS degree.  The final research presentation cannot be used to meet this requirement.  The Graduate Chair must approve all courses.

Research Report

Plan-B students are also required to conduct a research project for at least two semesters.  The results of this research should be written as a ‘research report’ and submitted to a committee composed of the (1) research advisor, (2) another graduate faculty and (3) the Graduate Chair.  The written research report should be about 10-20 pages, double spaced, with the following sections:  abstract (200-300 words), introduction (background and justification, 1- page), literature review (3-7 pages), objectives, materials and methods (3-7 pages), results and discussion (3-10 pages), and references.

Final Presentation and Oral Exam

All MS students need to present their preliminary results and plan of research in a proposal seminar within one year of their entrance into MBBE.  MS students who conduct research in laboratories outside the Manoa campus may present their proposal seminars in their laboratory locations.

General Requirement for the PhD Program

Minimum Course Requirements

Students with a previous Master’s degree in the biosciences are required to take a minimum of three credits of 400-level (excluding 499) and nine credits of 600-level (excluding 699) courses from the list of approved courses (refer to the “courses” tab above).  Students without a Master’s degree are required to take an additional two courses (three credits each of 400 and 600-level). Total courses required for Ph.D. degree without Master’s degree are: nine credits 400-level (excluding 499) and 15 credits of 600-level (excluding 699) courses from the list of approved courses (refer to the “courses” tab above).  

The courses must be pre-approved by the major advisor and Graduate Chair and failure to do so will jeopardize their inclusion towards the degree program. A minimum of 12 credits of MBBE 699 (directed research) and one credit of MBBE 800 are also required of all students.  MBBE 800 is taken preferably in the final semester.  Students are encouraged to take one credit of seminar (MBBE 610 or equivalent) each academic year.  Two seminar credits are required for the Ph.D. degree.  The dissertation proposal or defense seminar cannot be used to meet this requirement.

NOTE: Identified deficiencies, as stated in the Offer Letter, DO NOT count towards the course requirements.

Temporary Committee

In the first semester, the Graduate Chair appoints a temporary committee for each Ph.D. student.  The committee is comprised of the student’s supervisor (major advisor), the Graduate Chair, and a faculty member.  The committee advises the student on course work and other academic and research-related matters.

Two-page Research pre-proposal

Students need to discuss and define their research projects with their major advisors and write a two-page pre-proposal and outline of their project.  The pre-proposal must be submitted to the Graduate Chair in the first semester.  The pre-proposal and outline should have the following sections: introduction (background and justification), objectives, and approach.  If the scope and objectives of the project are modified later, the temporary committee should be informed and a copy of the revised proposal should be submitted to the Graduate Chair.

Qualifying exam

Ph.D. students have to take a qualifying exam before the end of the third semester.  If a student already has a Master’s degree with a thesis, the thesis will count as the qualifying exam.  Students without a Master’s thesis are asked to write a manuscript in the format of a scientific journal.  This manuscript will contain the preliminary results obtained in their MBBE research within the first three semesters

Permanent committee

After completing the qualifying exam, and before the end of the second year, the Ph.D. student shall form a permanent committee in consultation with his supervisor and the Graduate Chair.  This committee will consist of five faculty members, four of which are MBBE faculty or affiliated cooperating faculty. A fifth member is the University Representative. Check the Graduate Division Website for approved committee members and University Representative for our MBBE Graduate Program  (http://manoa.hawaii.edu/graduate/content/list-committee-member).

Who can serve as University Representative (UR) on your Committee?

As you may note from the above website that UR should be a level 3 faculty outside MBBE, and a Minimum rank Associate Professor. The member must have served previously as the Chair of a Ph.D. committee and their primary appointment must be in a major academic department.

For definition of level 3 faculty, refer to (http://www.manoa.hawaii.edu/graduate/content/types-levels). Level 3 (formerly Full) –members may chair master’s and doctoral committees in their home or cooperating graduate programs, prepare and/or assist in preparing/grading qualifying, comprehensive and final exams, in administration of their home graduate program, serve as university representative and on the Graduate Council. They may also serve as committee members on any master’s and doctoral committees.

CTAHR Symposium

Students are encouraged to make a poster presentation in the CTAHR symposium in the first year.  They must make at least one more presentation in the symposium before they graduate.  Students are also encouraged to make additional presentations to sharpen their communication skills. This includes teaching experiences to prepare students for future endeavors. 

Other Presentations

Students are encouraged to make oral and poster presentations in other national and international conferences.  A number of travel scholarships are available from the Graduate Student Organizations.  Often the supervisors provide funds for Ph.D. student travel. Students can also make presentations in a number of research symposia organized on the UHM campus.  These include the Tester, Microbiology, and BioMed Symposia.

The first manuscript

Students should try to complete a manuscript from their dissertation research and get it published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal as soon as possible.

Committee meetings

Students should meet at least once a year with their committee to discuss their progress.

Full Proposal and Proposal Seminar

The student should frequently discuss the progress and direction of his/her research with the major advisor.  When they agree that the project is going well and there are some convincing research data, the student will be allowed to write a full proposal and then present a proposal seminar. 

The full proposal will expand upon the research summary and outline (pre-proposal) described previously.  It will contain the following: introduction (substantial literature review, background, research purpose, and justification for the research), objectives, experimental approach, and references.  The students must conduct an extensive literature review related to his/her research subject.  He/she should discuss with his/her supervisor about the main focus of the “review of literature” chapter of his/her proposal, which will eventually be used in the dissertation. 

The proposal will be submitted to the committee at least two weeks prior to the seminar for evaluation.  All graduate faculty and students are invited to the proposal seminars.  The committee will formally endorse the proposal at this stage.  Ideally, the proposal seminar will be done within two years.  A proposal seminar must not be delayed beyond three years.  If it is delayed beyond three years, the Graduate Chair will discuss with the committee and consider transferring the student to an MS program.

Revision of proposal

Sometimes a project may run into unexpected problems.  If this occurs, the project may have to take a new direction and some of the objectives may have to be modified.  The student should invite a committee meeting and present a revised proposal.

Comprehensive exam

The permanent committee and the Graduate Chair give this oral exam.  The Graduate Chair or a representative appointed by the Graduate Chair serves as the moderator.  The committee will ensure that the student has learned molecular biosciences or bioengineering and mastered the subject well.  The comprehensive exam must be taken within three years.  If it is delayed beyond three years, the Graduate Chair will discuss with the committee and consider transferring the student to an MS program.

Publications

Publications are essential requirements of a Ph.D. degree in MBBE.  Students are encouraged to publish several papers in refereed journals. There must be at least one publication as the first author in a standard refereed journal.  Only under an exceptional situation, where research subject is very problematic, and the supervisor assures and convinces the committee and the Graduate Chair that a publication in forthcoming, a student may be considered for graduation without a publication on the day of defense.

Submission of dissertation to the committee

The dissertation will follow the format of the proposal, but at this stage, it will contain new results and document a substantial contribution to new knowledge.  All chapters of the dissertation must be first submitted to, and corrected by, the major advisor before submitting to the rest of the committee.  The committee may refuse to read the chapters if they contain many grammatical errors, and were not previously corrected and approved by the major advisor.  The Graduate Division has a published set of guidelines required by the University.  Formatting and the contents of the manuscript must satisfy these requirements, or the dissertation will not be accepted by the University.

Final dissertation defense

The final dissertation defense seminar is perhaps the most important event for the Ph.D. student.  Therefore, the student must prepare well for this presentation.  He/she must get approval from the major advisor and the committee for presenting a defense seminar.  The student must notify the Graduate Division in advance through the Graduate Chair about the date, time and place of dissertation defense.  Graduate faculty and students must be invited to the defense seminar.

Citing “Department of Molecular Biosciences & Bioengineering” in publications

All graduate students majoring in MBBE who work under the supervision of cooperating or affiliate Graduate Faculty in a laboratory outside of the MBBE department should cite “Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering” in their publications, at least as the second address. In this case, the address and affiliation of the supervisor’s laboratory can be the primary address. For example:

• M. Eustice^1,2, Qingyi Yu, C.W. Lai, S. Hou, J. Thimmapuram, L. Liu, M. Alam, P.H. Moore¹, G.G. Presting, R. Ming¹. 2008. Development and application of microsatellite markers for genomic analysis of papaya. Tree Genetics and Genomics 4:333-341.

1. Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, Aiea, HI 96701
2. Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822. 

GRADUATE STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

The MBBE MS/ Ph.D. graduate program aims to cultivate creativity and provide an environment that promotes rigorous cutting-edge scientific inquiry, new discoveries and enthusiastic learning in an interdisciplinary atmosphere. MBBE student researchers aim to create new knowledge and technologies within the context of a broad-based education that engages and motivates them to be lifelong learners and contributors to society. MBBE graduates will carry a passion for learning and be active caretakers of the planet. The extent to which these goals are reached is assessed with the following Student Learning Outcomes (SLO's), in which students:

1. Are able to understand, describe and explain fundamental core STEM science concepts and have proven the ability to comprehend and convert these concepts into experimental approaches and hypothesis-driven research on biological systems.
2.  Activities are demonstrated by written works, a contribution of results for published articles, as primary author(s)/co-author(s), in peer-reviewed scientific journals of basic and applied molecular biosciences and bioengineering.
3. Present research at national and international conferences as evidenced by published abstracts and poster and/or oral presentations.
4. Can communicate orally and in writing in a clear, well-organized manner that effectively informs and clarifies scientific principles and laboratory techniques to others, as evidenced by provision of seminars, technical reports, dissertations or theses, providing details of scientific and scholarly activities.
5. Are well prepared for employment in the critically important and dynamic biotechnology, chemical and biosciences fields (government, academia, industry). 

HISTORY AND DESCRIPTON OF THE MBBE GRADUATE PROGRAM

The Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering (MBBE) was established in 1999 as result of a reorganization of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR).  Most faculty in MBBE came from three former CTAHR departments, Plant Molecular Physiology (PMP), Environmental Biochemistry, and Biosystems Engineering.  Among them, only PMP had a graduate program that offered both PhD and MS degrees.  The PMP Graduate Program started in 1985 and emphasized plant biology and biotechnology.

After the MBBE department was established, the PMP Graduate Program was reorganized, expanded and renamed as the Graduate Program in MBBE in 2000.  The program’s scope was widened to include molecular biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, cell biology, biotechnology, and engineering aspects of plant science, tropical agriculture, aquaculture, environmental bioremediation, bioprocessing, and biomedical sciences.

With this programmatic expansion, faculty and scientists from other UHM departments and scientific institutes in Hawaii were welcomed into the Program as co-operating and affiliate graduate faculty.  The number of students also increased.  Guidelines and requirements were developed to maintain high academic standards.  These guidelines are reviewed regularly to ensure relevance and contemporariness of the various curricula and fields of study.  Currently, many MBBE graduate students are supervised by faculty from John A. Burns School of Medicine, Cancer Research Center, Pacific Biomedical Research Center, Queens Medical Center, Hawaii Agricultural Research Center, Sea Grant College Program, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, College of Engineering and several departments including Microbiology, Zoology, Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, and Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences.  Thus, MBBE became an interdisciplinary graduate program centered around the molecular biosciences but including tropical agriculture, biological and biomedical sciences, and engineering.

The GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN THE MBBE DEPARTMENT

The MBBE Graduate Program offers both MS and Ph.D.. degrees.  This program emphasizes research and training that seek to further our knowledge and understanding of the biochemical, nutritional and molecular-biological processes that underlie growth, development, photosynthesis, and stress, especially as related to tropical agriculture, aquaculture, plant and environmental biotechnology, and biomedical sciences.

ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS

1. Minimum qualifications for admittance as a regular student are an undergraduate degree from an accredited U.S. college or university or equivalent degree from a recognized foreign institution of higher learning and a GPA of at least 3.0 on a scale of 4.0.
2. All prospective students must submit scores of the GRE General Test.  In special cases, submission of scores may be delayed with permission of the Graduate Division.  Foreign students must also submit TOEFL scores (see Graduate Bulletin for exceptions).  A minimum TOEFL score of 250 in the computer-based test (or 100 in the internet-based test) is required.
3. All applicants are expected to have completed courses or equivalents in physics, chemistry, basic biology, genetics, biochemistry, physiology and one additional upper division course in cellular or molecular biology. While not a requirement, physical chemistry is highly recommended.  Students may be accepted with deficiencies in one or more of these areas, however deficiencies must be made up during the first year as a graduate student. Such courses may not be used for graduate credit. 

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

Most graduate students are supported by teaching or research assistantships or fellowships. In addition, tuition is waived for all assistantships and most fellowships. It is recommended that students interested in research assistantships contact faculty working in their area of interest regarding availability. Additional fellowship support is available from the East-West Center, which offers scholarships to Asian, Pacific and American students for affiliation in one of their programs.