![[Forsburg Lab]](/~forsburg/images/labpic06.jpg)
The Forsburg Lab combines independent and hardworking undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral scholars with a talented technical staff. If you are interested in working with us, please read the information below.
We welcome highly motivated undergraduates in the lab for research or lab support. However, our lab is a professional environment, and undergraduates need to be committed to making a positive contribution to our research mission. A minimum of a 2-semester commitment is required. Students interested only in résumé building are not accepted. Students must be extremely reliable and responsible, and good team players. All students must sign a statement of expectations and policies. Failure to adhere to these policies is grounds for dismissal.
Work-study: a few work-study positions are available to provide laboratory support (dish-washing, media making, and related tasks). Students must have completed basic chemistry and be familiar with making molar solutions and dilutions. Students work under the supervision of the Lab Manager and must be diligent and responsible for this vital support position.
Research: 490 and research opportunities are determined by space available. We welcome students who want to make a contribution to our research. However, we do not admit 490 students without prior experience. If you are interested in our research, you must volunteer for at least one semester prior to your anticipated 490 enrollment, to see if you are the right fit for our lab, to be trained, and to develop a project. Minimum requirements for admission are satisfactory completion of Genetics (BISC 325) and Molecular Biology (BISC320), and a strong interest in DNA replication and chromosome dynamics.
Summer research Opportunities for summer research vary, depending on time, space, and money.
Alumni Past undergraduates from The Forsburg Lab have gone on to medical school or graduate school at UCSF, Harvard, NYU, Loyola, Ross SoM, Rutgers, Georgetown....Check out pics here.
We get a lot of inquiries about PhDs. In the US system, students apply for admission by the university and choose their lab advisor during their first year of study, following several rotations with different labs. There is not a studentship system as in other countries. Students are admitted to the Forsburg Lab on a competitive basis after completing their rotations; we generally take one a year. Prospective students can apply to USC through two programs: either the PhD program in Molecular & Computational Biology, which is located in our department (admissions info), or the large umbrella program called PIBBS, which is housed at the medical school and serves all of USC. Admissions and formal courses of the two programs are somewhat different. They also differ in the size of the program and incoming class, and the location of the coursework (the University Park Campus or the Health Sciences Campus).
We encourage interested students to apply to one of our graduate admission programs if they are interested in study in the Forsburg Lab. However, admission to the program does not guarantee a place in our lab.
Availability of postdoctoral places varies, depending on space and funding. If you are interested, please send a CV and arrange for three letters of reference. Generally, qualified applicants will be recent PhDs with at least 2 primary research publications in excellent journals, and will have a background that includes at least one of the following: yeast genetics, molecular biology of DNA replication/repair, chromosome biology, cell cycle/signal transduction, or cell biology and imaging.
Undergraduates and Postdocs should apply directly to Prof Susan Forsburg, email address forsburg (at) USC (dot) edu.
Graduate students should apply through the appropriate program as described above.
If you are a USC undergraduate looking for support for school (scholarships) or research fellowships, here are some useful links:
