Most of the requirements of this program must be fulfilled in English. Therefore, a very good knowledge of the English language is required.

The Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine offers graduate programs and excellent research environments leading to master's and doctoral degrees in neuroscience. It also offers a collaborative specialization in human and molecular genetics for students admitted to the master's or doctorate in Neuroscience. A comprehensive set of courses, state-of-the-art research facilities and outstanding research opportunities ensure that students are well prepared for a career in their field.

Details of the research interests of the members of the neuroscience program are found on the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine Web site. Briefly, their research extends from fundamental cellular and molecular neuroscience in normal and disease states to the study of neural networks and systems neurophysiology. Specific topics include assembly and regulation of synapses including neurotransmitter secretion and organization of receptors and channels, electrophysiology of ion channels in membrane excitation and synaptic transmission within the sensory, motor or neuroendocrine systems, signal processing within the central, autonomic and enteric nervous systems, autonomic control of fluid balance and hypertension as well as biological rhythms and sleep, neuropharmacology and neurochemistry of normal and disease states such as anxiety, depression, pain, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Hirschsprung's disease, neuronal inflammation and neuronal cell death, and pathophysiological mechanisms of ischemia.

The facilities include well equipped tissue culture space, histology labs for immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization and receptor autoradiography, biochemistry labs for routine separation, enzyme assay work and protein biochemistry. Electrophysiological laboratories are equipped for intracellular, patch-clamp and extracellular recordings of cultured cells, brain slices and whole animals. High-quality phase and fluorescence microscope facilities (including integrated video and fast CCD image capture for live, low light level fluorescence and digital confocal microscopy for 3-D image capture) are available on site and there is time-share access to laser scanning confocal microscopy facilities for optical sectioning. Group access services for peptide synthesis, antibody production and oligonucleotide probe construction are also available.

The Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine is located at the Health Sciences Center of the University of Ottawa. A well-stocked medical science library is found on site. The Health Sciences Center includes the medical school and a biomedical complex consisting of the Ottawa Hospital (General Campus), the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, the Royal Ottawa Rehabilitation Center, and the following research Institutes: Ottawa Regional Cancer Center, Neuroscience Research Institute, Eye Institute, and Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Through its cross-appointed and adjunct members, the department has research affiliations with the Loeb Research and University of Ottawa Heart Institutes at the Ottawa Hospital (Civic Campus), the Royal Ottawa Hospital, the Canadian Red Cross, Health Canada, National Research Council and the Department of National Defence.

Students are admitted under the general regulations of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The neuroscience program is appropriate to students with a background in biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, physiology or biopharmaceutical sciences; students with a background in chemistry or physics will be considered. The minimum requirement to be considered for admission to the master's program is an honours bachelor's degree or its equivalent with a minimum 70 per cent (B) average. The minimum requirement to be considered for admission to the PhD program is a master's degree or its equivalent with a minimum 75 per cent (B+) average. Applicants who have studied beyond the honours BSc, but who do not hold an MSc degree, will be considered for admission to the master's program, and can request a transfer to the doctoral program after one year provided they meet the conditions outlined below. Courses beyond the minimum listed below for the master's and the doctorate may be specified at admission to ensure acquisition of the skills needed to pursue graduate work in neuroscience.

Financial Support

The Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, in collaboration with the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (FGPS), offers graduate students various types of funding: admission scholarships, teaching and research assistantships, travel grants for conference presentations. Furthermore, students have access to scholarships offered by various external agencies. For additional information, please contact the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and the FGPS Web site www.grad.uOttawa.ca.

Transfer from the MSc to the PhD Program

Students performing well in the master's program may be recommended for transfer to the doctoral program without being required to write a master's thesis. The conditions to be met are as follows:

• successful completion of the seminar and courses required for the MSc program;
• satisfactory progress in the research program;
• recommendation by the advisory committee;
• approval by the graduate studies committee.

Following transfer, all of the requirements of the doctoral program must be met: Doctoral Seminar (NSC 8325, 3 credits), six credits of course work, including either NSC 5102 or NSC 5104, the comprehensive exam, presentation of the thesis research in the departmental seminar series and the thesis.

PhD Program Requirements

• A minimum of six sessions (two years) on a full-time basis must be spent on a supervised research project;
• doctoral Seminar (NSC 8325S, 3 credits);
• six credits of course work, including NSC 5102 and NSC 5104 or equivalents;
• comprehensive examination (NSC 9998), in the form of either a defended MRC-style grant application or an oral examination on selected topics within the field;
• presentation of the thesis research in the departmental seminar series;
• presentation and defense of a thesis based on original research (NSC 9999).