About BBS

The BBS faculty is comprised of world-class scientific leaders cutting across numerous disciplines to fuel discovery and advance the boundaries of knowledge.  Harvard Medical School (HMS), its affiliated hospitals and research institutes, and the greater Harvard system are home to an unmatched number of outstanding research laboratories working in all areas of bioscience. Whether students are interested in fundamental biological mechanisms, disease-focused translational studies, or applied research in bioengineering or synthetic biology, our environment has a research community that will enable students to achieve their research goals.

Under the BBS umbrella are interwoven research communities comprised of basic science departments and interdepartmental programs at Harvard Medical School. We think of these communities as our “neighborhoods within the city.” Each provides a close-knit environment where faculty and trainees with common interests work together to advance research in their field and participate in enriching training activities. BBS therefore combines the unparalleled choice of research lab made possible by its size with the cohesiveness of special-interest communities typical of smaller departmental programs.

BBS Students have access to a vast network of faculty across all Harvard Integrated Life Sciences programs. To help them identify potential rotation labs, current students organize a weekly Rotation Club in the fall where they present their experiences rotating in different labs and provide advice to new students in choosing a lab. Additionally, the BBS Faculty Seminar series helps G1 students engage peers and faculty on the topic of rotations in the fall of their first semester. Program Advisors and BBS Peer Mentors are additional layers of support for identifying rotation/thesis labs.

The BBS curriculum gives students the flexibility to choose from a variety of course subjects and formats to fulfill their Ph.D. degree requirements.

Required Courses:

Skills Courses (6 credits)
BBS 230: Analysis of the biological literature and experimental Design (Fall G1)
BBS 330QC: Critical thinking and research proposal writing (Fall G2)
Medsci 300QC: Responsible Conduct of Science (Fall G2) (these 2 credits do not count towards your BBS required credits)

Core Content Courses (8 credits)
Students will select two of our core content courses but can choose to take all three if they wish.

Genetic 201: Principles of Genetics (Fall G1)
BCMP 200: Principles of Molecular Biology (Fall G1)
CB 201: Principles of Cell Biology (Spring G1)

Electives (14 credits)
Students will take an additional 14 credits of elective courses to complete a minimum of 28 overall credits for BBS requirements.

Teaching is a highly transferrable skill that BBS believes to be central to the role of a scientist in society. Pedagogy (the strategies and techniques or “art” of teaching) allows the communication of scientific concepts, principles, methods and details for the training of others. Teaching is also a powerful vehicle to offer mentorship and encouragement to others. The BBS program requires that each student fulfill one semester as a non-paid teaching fellow primarily in BBS Core Courses.