Integrated Graduate Program in Physical and Engineering Biology (PEB)

http://peb.yale.edu
peb@yale.edu

Director
Corey O’Hern (Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science; Physics; Applied Physics; Computational Biology and Bioinformatics)

Associate Director
Emma Carley

Executive Committee Julien Berro (Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry; Cell Biology), Joerg Bewersdorf (Cell Biology; Biomedical Engineering), Enrique De La Cruz (Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry), Thierry Emonet (Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; Physics; Computational Biology and Bioinformatics), Jonathon Howard (Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry; Physics), Megan King (Cell Biology), Andre Levchenko (Biomedical Engineering), Kathryn Miller-Jensen (Biomedical Engineering; Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology), Simon Mochrie (Physics; Applied Physics), Michael Murrell (Biomedical Engineering), Corey O’Hern (Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science; Physics; Applied Physics; Computational Biology and Bioinformatics), Thomas Pollard (Emeritus; Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology)

The Yale PEB program brings together faculty from the physical, engineering, and biological sciences, who carry out collaborative, interdisciplinary research and teaching. Participation in the PEB program is open to any graduate student who is interested in applying quantitative, physical approaches to study important biological questions. PEB-participating departments, tracks (BBS), and degree-granting programs include Applied Mathematics; Applied Physics; Biochemistry, Quantitative Biology, Biophysics, and Structural Biology (BBS track); Biomedical Engineering; Chemical and Environmental Engineering; Chemistry; Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (BBS track and also degree-granting program); Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science; Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics, and Development (BBS track); Molecular Medicine, Pharmacology, and Physiology (BBS track); Neuroscience (BBS track); Plant Molecular Biology (BBS track); and Physics.

Graduate Certificate in Physical and Engineering Biology (PEB) 

Upon advancement to candidacy in a home department and satisfaction of the PEB requirements, students receive a certificate from the Integrated Graduate Program in Physical and Engineering Biology.

Students interested in participating in the PEB program may indicate their interest on their graduate application for admission to a home department or track. Students may also join the PEB after they have matriculated at Yale. After arriving at Yale, students should e-mail peb@yale.edu to express their interest in the PEB, and the leadership will review their application materials.

PEB students acquire a depth of knowledge in their home department and also a breadth of knowledge across disciplines from PEB courses and activities. They will become skilled at applying physical and engineering methods and quantitative reasoning to biological problems, and at identifying and tackling cutting-edge problems in the life sciences, and they will be proficient at combining theory and computation with wet lab experiments. In addition, students will become comfortable working in an interdisciplinary and collaborative research environment and adept at communicating with scientists from a variety of disciplines as well as with nonscientists.

Curriculum

The PEB curriculum consists of four core courses, which all students, regardless of their undergraduate background, take together:

Core Courses
Typically taken in the first year:
MB&B 517Methods and Logic in Interdisciplinary Research1
MB&B 591Integrated Workshop1
Should be completed by the second year:
ENAS 541Biological Physics1
MCDB 562Modeling Biological Systems II1

With permission of the PEB leadership, one of the following courses may be substituted to satisfy the third or fourth course of the PEB requirement:

ENAS 559Neuromuscular Biomechanics1
ENAS 567Systems Biology of Cell Signaling1
GENE 760Genomic Methods for Genetic Analysis1
MCDB 330Modeling Biological Systems I0
MB&B 752Biomedical Data Science: Mining and Modeling1

Two primer courses are also offered (but not required). Boot Camp Biology (MB&B 520) is a primer course for students entering PEB with little or no background in biology, and Quantitative Approaches in Biophysics and Biochemistry (MB&B 635/ENAS 518) is a primer course for students entering PEB with little or no background in mathematics and computation.

Certificate requirements

To receive the certificate, students must:

  • Complete the PEB curriculum
  • Present their research during the PEB Discussion Group in May of their second year
  • Participate in at least one PEB-hosted outreach event
  • Participate in at least two professional development opportunities. Eligible professional development opportunities include: attending an external workshop on a PEB-related topic, presenting research at a non-Yale conference or meeting, attending a PEB-hosted professional development event, helping organize a PEB outreach event or the PEB discussion group, inviting and hosting a PEB Distinguished Seminar Series speaker, meeting with Yale alumni working in a PEB-related field, or having a one-on-one career advising appointment with the Yale Office of Career Strategy.
  • Be admitted to candidacy in their home department or degree granting program

For more information about the programming, coursework, and other enrichment activities available to PEB students; see http://peb.yale.edu.