The Department of Physiology and Biophysics offers graduate training in these disciplines leading to either the M.S. or Ph.D. degree.

The Department is part of the Keck School of Medicine located on the Health Science Campus of the University of Southern California. The campus is also the location of other basic science programs as well as programs educating health care professionals. Major tertiary care hospitals located on campus further support a focus on research that can be translated into promoting health and curing and preventing disease. The research programs of the faculty of the department can be accessessed here.

The Ph.D. program prepares a student for a career as an independent research scientists, particularly in the fields of medical physiology and biophysics.

The MS program is normally restricted to the thesis track, which facilitates subsequent enrollment of qualified graduates to doctoral programs. Graduates of the program have also gone on to medical schoo, the pharmaceutical industry, and university research programs.

Physiology is the study of the functions and activities of life and living matter at all levels of organization within an organism. While physiology research is frequently at the molecular level, the tradition of the discipline challenges the researcher to consider all the homeostatatic and developmental functions of the organism. Experiencing this challenge creates a valuable research perspective.

The American Physiological Society is devoted to fostering education, scientific research, and dissemination of information in the physiological sciences. To accomplish this mission the Society publishes journals reporting on advances in physiological research and education.

Biophysics is a brach of science that applies the principles of physics and chemistry and the methods of mathematical analysis and computer modeling to undderstand how biological systems work.

The Biophysical Society and its journal are devoted to fostering education, scientific research and dissemination of information in the biophysical sciences.