Lab Rotations

(BMS 215, 3 units/qtr.)

Faculty who are able to take rotation students in 2025-26
Rotation Availability Roster, updated July 2025.
If you do not see a particular faculty member listed here that you are interested in, please contact them directly. It may be that they just haven't had a chance to respond; it doesn't necessarily mean they don't want students!

Lab Rotation Roster, updated July 2024. This includes a list of rotations completed by all currently enrolled students. If you have a question about a lab, feel free to contact one of the students that rotated in this lab!

Lab Selection Survey - please complete this survey once you have confirmed a lab rotation or your thesis lab

Lab Rotation Expectations Agreement - to be used by the student and PI to help communicate program and lab expectations of the rotation and to provide a framework for providing feedback about the rotation from the PI’s perspective and from the student’s perspective.  It’s critical for students and PIs to be able to communicate expectations with each other and be able to give growth-minded feedback to each other.

About Lab Rotations

In addition to course work you must complete a minimum of three laboratory rotations with faculty members of the BMS program during the first year. All rotations must be with BMS faculty members. Please contact Meredith for more information. MSTP students are required to complete two laboratory rotations with BMS faculty. The purpose of the rotations is to provide you with a varied laboratory experience and to allow you to explore laboratories in which you may wish to do a thesis. Each rotation lasts one quarter and is expected to take about 50% of your time. Laboratory rotations are one quarter only (10 weeks). Students are not permitted to rotate in the same lab for more than one quarter.

Faculty members' research interests are described on the BMS faculty profiles. Your Graduate Advisor can help you choose a laboratory to match your interest to ensure that you have a varied experience. After you have selected a particular laboratory for a possible rotation, make an appointment with the faculty member to discuss his or her research. Each rotation should represent a serious commitment from both you and from the faculty member. In discussing the possibility of a rotation with a faculty member, it is helpful to:

1. Clearly define the scientific goals of the project.
2. Identify your role in the project.
3. Understand what is expected of you during the project.

Choosing a Lab Rotation

Each rotation should last a full quarter, but we understand that sometimes start and end dates have to remain flexible due to the project involved. The fall quarter rotation in particular may start a few weeks late as you get settled into life at UCSF. Our expectation is that you will spend about half your time in lab (approximately 20 hours per week). It is important to achieve a good balance with your coursework to ensure satisfactory performance in both, so if you find it starts to become a struggle, we urge you to let your graduate advisor know. The program manager is also available to talk about this. 

Who can you rotate with?  All BMS faculty have been approved by the program to accept rotation students.  The best place to find out who is BMS faculty is to check the BMS faculty profiles or contact the program manager.  We update the site with new faculty profiles when they provide us the information to do so.  Not all will do this in a timely fashion, so when in doubt, reach out to Meredith. Students who wish to rotate with a faculty member who is not already in the BMS program, need to notify the faculty member and program manager at least three weeks in advance of the start of your rotation, as the program requires faculty to formally apply for BMS membership, i.e., submit the required paperwork and obtain the required nominating letters, as part of the pre-approval process. Meredith can provide these faculty with more information on the materials required. Those faculty who are provisionally approved by the program director for a rotation must still be reviewed by the BMS Executive Committee at its next meeting for ultimate approval for BMS membership. Sandler Fellows can still serve as rotation and faculty mentors so long as a BMS faculty member serves as co-mentor. We vet all faculty that join the program to make sure they would be appropriate mentors for our students.  We look at their research programs, lab space, their publication record, mentoring track record (if possible), etc.

Before you arrive on campus: If you are interested in a particular lab, you may contact the faculty member anytime by email or phone to talk about a possible rotation. The faculty have been notified of your enrollment and will be delighted to hear from you. Please wait until you arrive on campus to finalize any rotations!! You should discuss all rotations with your grad advisor, other students in the lab and/or other lab members, and the program manager before you agree to any rotation. 

Excellent opportunities to meet the faculty include journal club, the Fall BMS Symposium and the Fall BMS retreat.

Choosing a rotation doesn’t have to be difficult. It’s as simple as going through the descriptions of faculty or talking with one of the advisors to find people whose work seems interesting. Then set up an appointment, meet and discuss what you’re interested in and have them tell you about their work. Meet as many people as you can that interest you, and set up your rotations as soon as you can. Rotations should closely match the beginning and end of the school quarter, give or take a week.

Talk to students who work in the lab. This is VERY important. You can also talk to those who have rotated in the lab before, as well as postdocs, SRAs and other faculty. 

When it’s time to choose a thesis advisor, you should think about several things:

• The science – is it interesting?
• The personality of the professor
• Lab dynamics – do people get along, do you like them? Are there other graduate students in the lab or only postdocs and technicians?
• Will this advisor be a good mentor? How have past students done? 
• Will this advisor also be able to provide you with a student or postdoc co-mentor in the lab? If this is important to you, be sure to ask!
• Is this faculty member knowledgeable in the area you want to study? Who is more knowledgeable?
• Will you be able to get there easily? Who else is nearby? Classmates? Friends?
• What’s the typical workday? Do people in the lab work long hours?
• Is there enough funding? Is there enough space? What will be your minor responsibilities besides research?
• How long will it take you to graduate? What’s the PI’s philosophy on graduation times? How long have students taken in the past?
• Do you want to work with a new PI or a more established PI?
• Do you want a high-profile lab? Are you a workaholic or do you want a laid-back atmosphere? How does that fit in with the lab?
• Is the PI hands-on or hands-off? Do you need guidance regularly or can you work all alone?
• Talk face-to-face to lab members to see what they really think of the lab and what kind of personalities seem to succeed in it.
• Most of all, will you learn the skills you need to become a good, respected, thorough scientist?

Read the mentoring compact prepared by the AAMC. We think it is very useful for both students and faculty mentors to review. It is made available to all BMS faculty.

Some Frank Words about Rotations from a Student

It can often feel awkward and scary to talk to a professor about possibly doing a rotation or wanting to join their lab, since it is potentially the beginning of an important relationship in your life. This is a relationship that you need to investigate and develop in making your final decision. In talking to PIs, make sure you can have the kinds of interpersonal relationships you need. Obviously, the science should excite you as well! It is important to take the process seriously, but it's also important to remember that, particularly at UCSF, there are many great labs in which students have done quite stellar PhDs.

In many years, there is a pack mentality in particular which can draw many students to a small number of labs, making it more competitive to ultimately join that lab. It is important to think about what you want: talk to professors, talk to current students, and use all of the resources at your disposal to think about your options. Each rotation has its own challenges in this respect: In the first rotation, you may not know enough about all of the various faculty members (use your advisor, other upper-level students and the faculty interests page for information). In subsequent rotations, you may start to get ideas of labs with newer exciting work (e.g. from pizza talks or classmates' experiences), but by then other students may have rotated there and spots may be more competitive (talk particularly to the PI and the other students who have rotated in the lab when this occurs).

Many professors are enthusiastic about taking rotation students and view it as a chance to assess the scientific and personal fit from their end. Joining the lab on a permanent basis, on the other hand, is quite a big commitment on both sides. From a student's perspectives, it can be a disappointment to rotate in a lab that you love and then find out for whatever reason that you cannot join that lab. It is important to remember that in addition to being a scientific mentor, your PI is also a personnel manager, and they should be up front about their practical situations early on.

In addition to having the rotation be a scientific and personal fit, some practical matters such as funding and space can make or break the deal. For instance, you might want to consider carefully if the PI tells you from the beginning that he/she will let you rotate, but limited space or funding may mean there would not be a permanent place for you. If you believe that the scientific experience of rotating in such a lab would be valuable, it is your choice whether or not to rotate. However, remember that doing a rotation does not mean that you have a spot in the lab, so always keep an open mind about other possible labs. It might be a good idea in general to get a sense as early as possible of how likely it is you will be able to join the lab if you are to do a rotation. Early on, you should always feel free to ask questions like: “How many students do you plan to take this year?”, “Are there people leaving?”, “Is there funding for me past my second year?”

Another situation you may encounter is some labs tend to get many more rotation students during the 3 rotations than the PI could or should possibly support in a given year (3+). Many PIs feel that more than 2 students joining is not a good idea since it puts strain on the lab to take on a lot of people who are early in their training. PIs are willing to let more than 2 rotate, since they too recognize that not all the rotating students typically join. If you are considering a rotation where this is the case (for example come the 2nd or 3rd rotation), it is probably smart to talk to your fellow students openly about your intentions of either joining or not joining the lab. Similarly, it is also smart to maintain some level of contact with your rotation PIs as you progress along the school year. Your interests can change a lot, and it is good to let any previous PIs know if you are sure that their lab is or is not for you. In the latter case, the PI will probably appreciate your honesty and should not be offended or upset if you decide not to join their lab. 

In all cases, the decision to join should be based on a mutual belief that you can do great science together and both parties need to feel this way. Remember that the purpose of a rotation is to find good scientific and interpersonal fits for the thesis.