University of Chicago BSD campus

Interdisciplinary Committees

Our interdisciplinary committees bring together faculty from across our basic science and clinical departments together with other areas of the University of Chicago who are committed to training the next generation of scientists and physicians. Each committee chair is appointed by the Dean to lead an interdisciplinary group of faculty focused on the training and mentorship of students, postdoctoral scholars, and fellows across a diverse range of scientific areas.

The Committee on Cancer Biology explores novel scientific mechanisms that explain the etiology, progression and treatment of cancer as a disease. Faculty members within this committee mentor students towards a PhD in Cancer Biology. 

The Committee on Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) advances multidisciplinary training in clinical and translational science at the University of Chicago and develop high-quality coursework for researchers and students committed to significantly impacting medical science and practice. With support from CHeSS and the Institute for Translational Medicine, the CCTS supports the development of curriculum in clinical and translational science at the University. Courses are designed to provide undergraduates, graduate-level trainees, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty with state-of-the-art skills in the field.

The Committee on Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics trains MD, MD/PhD, PharmD and PhD graduates interested in personalized medicine, pharmacogenomics, new drug development, classical clinical pharmacology, genetics of drug abuse, and clinical trial design. 

Housed within the Neuroscience Institute, the Committee on Computational Neuroscience provides an interdepartmental and interdivisional focus for multidisciplinary training in neuroscience leading to a PhD in Computational Neuroscience. Computational neuroscience is a relatively new area of inquiry that is concerned with how components of animal and human nervous systems interact to produce behaviors, relying on quantitative and modeling methods to understand the function of the nervous system, natural behaviors and cognitive processes, and to design human-made devices that duplicate behaviors. 

The Committee on Development, Regeneration, and Stem Cell Biology (DRSB) brings together a diverse group of faculty to train PhD students to identify and answer fundamental questions in developmental biology using a broad, interdisciplinary approach. The vibrant developmental biology community at the University of Chicago unites basic science and clinical researchers across the Biological Sciences Division. The diverse scientific interests of the DRSB faculty offer students a broad choice of research topics and organisms. With training leading to a PhD in Development, Regeneration, and Stem Cell Biology, this program is unique. 

The Committee on Evolutionary Biology (CEB) was established in 1968 and trains PhD students pursuing interdisciplinary research leading to a PhD in Evolutionary Biology. This unique and highly ranked program presently has about sixty faculty members representing all four graduate divisions (Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities), as well as institutions outside the University (Argonne National LaboratoryBrookfield ZooChicago Botanic GardenThe Field MuseumLincoln Park Zoo, and Morton Arboretum). 

The Committee on Genetics, Genomics & Systems Biology (GGSB) is an interdisciplinary PhD granting program that is aimed at training students for careers as independent scientists in basic and applied biomedical research and education, leading to Doctor of Philosophy in Genetics. Combining a foundation in modern genetic analysis with training in current methods for formulating and addressing biological questions in the context of complex systems, the Committee brings togther over 70 biologists from numerous academic departments to offer a unique training experience.

The Committee on Immunology offers a graduate program of study leading to a PhD in Immunology. The committee is dedicated to the open exchange of ideas among scholars of all fields, a commitment enhanced by an organizational structure that completely integrates the basic biological sciences with the clinical sciences. This multidisciplinary and integrated approach corresponds well with the reality of the new biology, where molecular and structural techniques are applied widely and with great success to clinical problems.

The Committee on Medical Physics is recognized internationally for its research excellence and the caliber of its faculty, students, and graduates. This unique doctoral program leading to a PhD in Medical Physics includes 21 faculty who hold appointments in the Department of Radiology (for those faculty with a primary interest in diagnostic imaging) or the Department of Radiation and Cellular Oncology (for those faculty with a primary interest in the physics of radiation therapy). Our dedicated PhD program is supported by a training grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering which attests to the research excellence of our program, and is accredited by CAMPEP, which attests to the depth and breadth of the training received by students who wish to pursue clinical medical physics careers.  

Recent breakthroughs in genomics, imaging, and analytical methods are revolutionizing the study of microbes, and the Committee on Microbiology provides students with specialized research training in multiple areas of microbial science. Our Microbiology graduate program unites 27 faculty from 10 departments, and offers an interdisciplinary course of study leading to the PhD in Microbiology. Research in microbiology extends from the molecular to the microbiome/community scale, and is yielding new understanding of processes ranging from the pathophysiology of microbial infection to the evolutionary ecology of plant-microbe interactions.

The Committee on Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition (CMMN) is a dynamic and interactive research unit of the University of Chicago, offering interdisciplinary doctoral training in the molecular basis of biological processes as they relate to metabolic homeostasis, nutritional status and human disease.  The Committee is centered on the graduate program, and has a main focus on training of graduate students. Faculty members, a mixture of basic scientists and clinical researchers, have primary appointments in a variety of departments at the University, and join the Committee for the express purpose of interacting, training, teaching and mentoring graduate students.

The Committee on Neurobiology (CON) trains future leaders in neuroscience in the rich variety of approaches and model systems for exploring fundamental questions of the nervous system. Over 60 faculty members are distributed across 13 departments and many areas of expertise, ranging from genetic, developmental, molecular and cellular neurobiology to systems neurophysiology, behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, computation and imaging. Many CON faculty also participate in other graduate programs and CON students are also embedded in larger scientific communities. Cross-disciplinary interactions are enhanced by the compact UChicago campus, where all labs are within easy walking distance.