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Genetics is the study of variation in and transmission of hereditary material from generation to generation and how this information is translated into biological function. Genetics utilizes multiple techniques to understand the variation, transmission and function of hereditary material from the molecular level to the population level. Because of the pervasive impact of genetic variation on biological function, genetics has become a unifying theme for much research in the biological and biomedical sciences and can serve as a focus for the study of virtually all biological processes and systems. Genetics plays an ever increasing role in elucidation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of human disease and birth defects, as well as in their prevention, diagnosis and therapy. In addition to the use of genetics to study biomedical questions posed by other fields, genetics encompasses an important set of questions as to how the information content of a set of relatively simple molecules can be translated into complex organisms, how variation at the molecular level can cause differences among individuals in terms of normal variation and disease processes, and how this variation within and among populations can be used to explain differences in disease prevalence.

In recent years, human genetics, as a subfield of genetics, has contributed significantly to our understanding of disease processes. This explosion in the growth of knowledge as an outcome of genetic analysis and the successfully completed Human Genome Project will increase over the foreseeable future. The goal of the Ph.D. Program in Human Genetics is to build on this explosion of knowledge by training students to explore the questions motivated by genetic research in general and particularly as they apply to human disease.

The curriculum will teach students within the program as well as students in other disciplines how to use the tools of genetics to answer a variety of important biological questions.

Ph.D. Program in Human Genetics Guidelines 2009         Apply to Vanderbilt