Graduate Studies

PRIORITY deadline for Biological Sciences, for Fall admission, is February 15

Important Links:

Application Deadlines - Graduate School

Graduation Deadlines

How to Apply to the Graduate School

Annual Graduate Student Progress Form

Please visit the NIU Graduate School for more information.

There are two graduate programs in the department, leading to master's or Ph.D. degree in the Biological Sciences. Students interested in obtaining a Master of Science degree may select from two options: thesis and non-thesis, or two specializations (Human Anatomical Sciences or Bioinformatics). Students interested in obtaining a Ph.D. degree may apply to our doctoral program.

Joanna Sztuba-Solinska,
(Ph. D. 2011, Bujarski Lab)

Currently I am working at National Institute of Health, the division of National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI-Frederick) at Dr. Stuart Le Grice’s laboratory. The primary research objective of the laboratory focuses on developing and applying state-of-the-art technologies to study proteins, nucleic acids and nucleoprotein complexes that mediate retroviral life cycle. The main goal of my study will be the analysis of the structure of viral genomic RNAs, e.g., HIV-1, Dengue virus, via application of selective 2’ hydroxil acylation analyzed by primer extension (SHAPE), targeted Fe-EDTA-footprinting with “threading intercalators” and small angle X-ray scattering. Since the replication and pathogenesis of viruses is tightly linked to the structure of their genomic RNA, this knowledge is a fundamental prerequisite to a complete understanding of retroviral molecular processes.