RGCB's exclusive TSM PhD Program is designed to train candidates with terminal degrees in medicine, dentistry, veterinary sciences and pharmacy to become leaders of the next generation of translational science by providing excellent opportunities to study human diseases at the interface between basic and clinical sciences. Students will spearhead the bidirectional translation of discoveries between the "bench" and "bedside" to improve human health. The TSM PhD program will be highly multidisciplinary in that its faculty and students are expected to span not only various research groups at RGCB, but also from other institutes including but not limited to the Regional Cancer Centre, the Trivandrum Medical College, the Trivandrum Dental College, the Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, the College of Pharmacy and the Veterinary University.
The program will have a deep and diverse curriculum that draws on biostatistics, clinical research methods, laboratory technology and population-based sciences. In addition this unique PhD program provides a critical environment fostering inquiry, integrity, teaching and communication skills, high productivity and working in a multi-disciplinary environment. A specially created didactic coursework will allow students to also acquire a broad perspective on general cell and molecular biology in addition to the process of taking health questions from patients or the community into the research environment, designing and executing interdisciplinary research studies and translating the resulting discoveries into better health outcomes. Students will then do a thesis project that involves an in-depth research study that includes learning and implementing discipline-specific methodology and answer a question that adds to knowledge in the field.
The TSM Program is designed to allow students concentrate their thesis topics in one of three areas: (1) population-based translational science or (2) patient-based translational science or (3) laboratory-based translational science including biomarkers and diagnostic development. The four year programme is innovatively designed to train a next generation of translational scientists by equipping them to exploit excellence in basic research for improving the health of local, national and international patient populations. The research in the TSM PhD program will demonstrate clear links that build on strengths in basic sciences and their translational value which will also become deeply embedded in the research philosophy of a national research institute that has disease biology as its primary focus

Admission

Admission to the RGCB TSM PhD program is limited to applicants with terminal professional degrees (namely MB.BS, M.D., MDS, MVSc, and M.Pharm). recognized and approved by the respective councils and who hold appropriate domestic licensure to practice professionally. Students have to be supported by appropriate research grants (individual or PI driven) or research fellowships or be part of a faculty improvement program. Applications on plain paper with an application fee of Rupees One thousand (exempted for SC/ST candidates) as a crossed Demand Draft and detailed curriculum vitae can be submitted at any time to the Director, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), Thiruvananthapuram 695014, Kerala State, India. Eligible candidates will interviewed by a duly constituted selection committee. The decision of the Director, RGCB will be final.