A hallmark of the MCSB Program has been the strength of its student financial support. The MCSB Program is supported by funding from UCI’s Graduate Division and an NIH Training Grant. Training grant funds are provided by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

During the first year of Ph.D. study, the MCSB program provides complete financial support to admitted students, which includes an annual stipend, as well as full tuition and fee remission, including health benefits. Since the fall of 2007 when the program admitted its first class of students, every student successfully completing the Gateway year has also been fully supported by the UCI Departments and faculty where they have chosen to continue their Ph.D. research.

The goal of UCI's program in Mathematical, Computational and Systems Biology (MCSB) is to provide students from a variety of educational backgrounds with Ph.D. training suitable for research careers in the nascent field of Systems Biology. The program emphasizes in-depth classroom study, interdisciplinary research rotations, and individualized advising.

Currently, the program begins with an initial "gateway" year, during which students receive basic training in principles of biology, as well as in mathematics, engineering and computer science.   Students also participate in research rotations, workshops, and directed reading of the Systems Biology literature. Upon successful completion of the first year, students select a thesis advisor from among the participating faculty, who represent departments throughout the biological, physical and information sciences and engineering. Students also have the option to pursue their degree directly from the MCSB program by electing the MS/Ph.D. option.  Students who choose the "Department Option" fulfill the remainder of their degree requirements according to the guidelines of the departmental programs to which their thesis advisors belong, at the same time continuing to participate in workshops, retreats, journal clubs and other activities of the MCSB program.

Funding for MCSB is made possible in part by a training grant sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).  Reference NIH/NIGMS T32-GM136624-01, beginning 7/1/20.

Initial funding was provided through the Interfaces Initiative, a collaborative venture of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). This initiative supported the development of graduate-level biomedical research training programs in emerging interdisciplinary fields. In 2005, UCI was one of ten institutions funded by this initiative. From 2009-2019, Interfaces Initiative funding continued in the form of an NIBIB training grant.  Since 2020, MCSB has been funded by a training grant from the NIGMS.

Funding is also received from the University of California, Irvine. With the completion of the NIH BEST-funded GPS-Biomed program, the campus administration has transitioned it to the GPS-STEM program. GPS-STEM program is designed to broaden graduate (and postdoctoral) training to better prepare the trainees for a variety of careers beyond academic research.

The field of Mathematical and Computational Biology (MCB) is an inherently broad and multidisciplinary area of scientific pursuit and scholarship. It has intellectual links to numerous and diverse fields in biology, medical science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, and computer science. Although it is not a new field, it is becoming increasingly important to progress in the biological sciences. This reflects the increased focus of many biologists on system-level approaches, in which complex network architectures, non-linear dynamics, and large data sets must often be explored and understood.

The breadth, multi-disciplinarity, and growing importance of MCB make it an attractive and important area for graduate study. However, this breadth also creates challenges for Universities seeking to train graduate students in this endeavor. In particular, the traditional organization of graduate training programs around single departments can limit the range of academic options a student may explore. On the other hand, it may be argued that training programs built around single departments are best for providing the focus that students/trainees entering such a broad field need.

In response to this dichotomy, this document proposes the formation of a new one-year MCB training program for PhD students. The MCB would function in concert with existing departmental programs, such that a student successfully completing the one year of MCB training would then be automatically directed into a departmental program for the remainder of his/her PhD training. In this way, the MCB would serve not as a degree-granting program, but as a "gateway" program, broadly similar in structure to other gateway programs already operating at UCI (such as the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program and the Program in Molecular Biology, Genetics and Biochemistry).

In fulfilling this function, the MCB would seek both to attract new, highly qualified students to UCI, and to provide them with an academic experience of the highest quality. In particular the MCB will:

• Provide students with an opportunity to begin their training in Mathematical and Computational Biology with a broad academic introduction;• Provide students with an opportunity for individualized attention to curricular needs;
• Provide students with an opportunity to conduct initial research projects with a large and diverse group of faculty in a wide variety of departments;
• Provide students with an opportunity to choose and conduct thesis research in any of a large and diverse group of laboratories in a wide variety of departments;
• Provide UCI Faculty in Biological Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, Information and Computer Science, and Physical Sciences with enhanced opportunities to compete for and obtain training grants from extramural sources.