All graduate students affiliated with BGS (Biomedical Graduate Studies) are required to pass a Preliminary Examination by the end of their second year. The examination consists of both a written proposal and an oral defense. Only students in good academic standing are eligible to take the Preliminary Examination.

A. Preliminary Examination Committee

The Director of Preliminary Examinations has ultimate responsibility for administering the Preliminary Examination. To assist him in reaching a decision regarding the quality of the written and oral exam, the Director will select a committee of four faculty from the BMB Graduate Group that will evaluate both the written and oral exam and report their findings to the Director. The committee will be chosen approximately six weeks prior to the oral exam.  One faculty member will be selected to act as the Chair of this committee.  Students will be asked to suggest faculty for inclusion on their preliminary exam committee; however the final committee will be chosen at the sole discretion of the Director. The committee will be chosen after the student has selected a topic and, where possible, members of the committee will have expertise regarding the topic or likely experimental techniques.  Students will be notified of their committee and may contest any one member of the committee if they feel that a personal conflict may present a bias.

B. Purpose

The purpose of the written Preliminary Examination is to examine the ability of graduate students at the end of their second year to: 1) identify an important problem in biochemistry and biophysics; 2) review the literature; 3) formulate a testable hypothesis; and  4) write an NIH-style research proposal that tests the hypothesis. The purpose of the oral Preliminary Examination is to examine the ability of students to: 1) defend the design and feasibility of the written proposal; 2) explain basic concepts in biochemistry; and 3) to explain both the theory behind and practical application of various biophysical techniques.

C. The Written Proposal

The student may choose a topic for the research proposal that is either thesis or non-thesis related.  If the student chooses a topic related to their proposed thesis research, the proposal must be the original work of the student and should not duplicate any part of previous grant proposals written by the Thesis Advisor or other lab members. Students are strongly encouraged to seek the advice of their Thesis Advisor, other graduate faculty, and students, both in selecting a topic and in critiquing early drafts. The proposal should give a succinct account of the literature and detailed experimental approach. The proposal should represent a logical series of experiments to provide a solution to the stated problem. It is required that students give a description of their predicted results, their quantitation and, if necessary, tables or graphs showing the anticipated data.  The level of quantitation should match the level of the question being asked. It is recognized that certain experiments and/or techniques may fail. With this realization, students should describe in outline form only, alternative approaches. The proposal (excluding figures and references) should not exceed 10 typewritten pages and should have the same structure as an NIH grant. 

The paper will consist of:

1. Specific Aims: state the specific purposes of the research proposal and the hypothesis to be tested.  (1 page)
   
2. Background/Significance: sketch briefly the background to the proposal. State concisely the importance of the research described in your proposal by relating the specific aims to broad, long-term objectives.  (3 pages)
3. An Outline of the Research Design and Methods: the research design and procedures to be used to accomplish the specific aims, a tentative sequence for the investigation, the statistical procedures by which the data will be analyzed, and denote any procedures, situations, or materials that may be hazardous to personnel and the precautions to be exercised.  Potential experimental difficulties should be discussed together with alternative approaches that could be used to achieve the desired aims.  (up to 6 pages)
4. Preliminary Results:  Presentation of preliminary results is not required.  If the proposal is directly related to the student’s thesis research, then preliminary results may be reported, especially when those results will help to establish the feasibility of the proposed experiments.
5. Literature Citations: At the end of the research proposal. Each citation must include the names of all authors, title of article, name of the book or journal, volume number, page numbers, and year of publication, in a format similar to the following: Tommos C, Skalicky JJ, Pilloud DL, Wand AJ, Dutton PL. "De novo proteins as models of radical enzymes." Biochemistry 1999; 38:9495-507.
6. Figures: Figures should be included that contribute to the explanation of the background material, that assist in describing novel experimental techniques, and that depict typical expected results and how those results will be analyzed. All figures should include a legend that explains the contents of the figure and cites published sources; the legends should be placed with each figure and not on a separate page. Since figures are not counted in the page limit, they should not be overly compressed to save space. Figures may be spliced into the text or placed on separate pages at the end of the proposal.

A rough specific aims for the proposal should be turned in to the Chair six weeks prior to the exam.  The committee should approve a final title and specific aims four weeks prior to the exam.  The completed proposal must be in the hands of the committee two weeks prior to the scheduled exam date.

D.  Defense of the Proposal

The student will begin the Preliminary Examination by presenting a 15-minute synopsis of the proposal consisting of not more than five prepared slides or transparencies.  The presentation should emphasize the specific experiments proposed in the written proposal.  The presentation should not unnecessarily repeat background information already presented in the written proposal.  Following the presentation, the committee members will ask questions.  The student should field these questions verbally, using a chalkboard or whiteboard to write equations, reactions, or pathways as necessary.  The student may refer back to one of the prepared slides, and may refer to any figure in the written proposal, but may not introduce new slides or figures at this point.  In defending the proposal the student should show an in-depth knowledge of biochemistry and biophysics.  Since the Graduate Group offers a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry and biophysics, a thorough knowledge of the fundamentals of these disciplines is expected.  For example, if the proposal contains molecular biological approaches, then the student should understand the biochemistry of DNA polymerases. If a binding assay is used, the student should understand the thermodynamic and quantitative background to binding.  If a biophysical technique such as NMR is used, the student should be familiar with physical principles underlying the technique and what the technique can and cannot measure. Students are reminded that biochemical and biophysical phenomena are often explained by consideration of rate-theory, thermodynamic considerations, ligand affinities, and kinetic constants, and questions on these topics may be appropriate.  Further, students should demonstrate an understanding of the amounts (nmoles, micrograms etc.) and concentrations (micromolar, nano-molar) of biochemicals they need to perform their experiments and an understanding of the magnitude of the changes they will be measuring.

E.   Pass/Fail Procedures

After the oral examination, the committee will meet without the student present to discuss the student's performance. The committee will decide whether the student has passed or failed and will unofficially inform the student of its decision immediately. The recommendation along with written critiques of the proposal and its defense will be communicated to the Director of Preliminary Examinations. 

Pass:  If the student passes, the Director will notify the Graduate Group Chair immediately.  In addition, the Academic Review Committee will assess the student's progress and ensure that the student is in good academic standing and that the 20 non-dissertation credit requirement has been satisfied.  A student will receive written confirmation of passage of the Preliminary Examination from the Graduate Group Chair and the written critiques from the committee and will begin on dissertation status.

1st Fail:  If a student fails the first attempt at the Preliminary Examination, the committee will recommend either rewriting the proposal, repeating the oral exam, or both.  For the second attempt, the Director of Preliminary Examinations will be added to the student’s committee and will take over as Chair.  The student will have four weeks to rewrite the proposal and/or prepare for the second oral exam.  In addition, the Director will solicit a letter of support from the proposed Thesis Advisor and will obtain a copy of the student’s academic file to assist in reaching a final pass/fail decision.

2nd Fail: The Director of Preliminary Examinations will notify the Graduate Group Chair and Academic Review Committee that the student has failed to pass the Preliminary Examination.  The Graduate Group Chair and Academic Review Committee are responsible for reaching a final decision regarding whether the student should leave the graduate program. In the case where termination is deemed necessary, the student may, if all other requirements have been met, be eligible for a terminal Master of Science degree.

Preliminary Examination Preparation Course (March 7 – April 29)

This short course instructs second year BMB graduate students in the proper structure of an NIH-style grant proposal.  The first 4 sessions will involve reading sample grant proposals and the second 4 sessions will focus on improving the student’s own written proposals.  This course will meet one hour per week (time and place yet to be determined), is worth 1/2 credit and is graded pass/fail.  Grades will be based entirely on attendance.

Deadlines:

April 1    Approval of the title and rough specific aims by the Chair.  Selection of the committee (~6 weeks before exam)

April 15    Approval of the final title and specific aims by the committee (~4 weeks before exam) 

April 29    Distribution of written proposal to the committee

May 13    Completion of oral exam

June 10     Last date to complete any 2nd attempts of either written or oral exams