Stanford Biology Professor Patricia Jones with student

Advising and Mentoring

No two paths through graduate school are the same. Each student requires individualized advising and mentoring for her or his development and growth. This advising and mentoring is a shared responsibility between the student and the advisor. It is critical that you identify and seek out the mentoring you need.

At Stanford, we are committed to providing advising and mentoring to help students reach their maximal potential, discover and develop their passion, and enjoy their journey through graduate school on the path to their career of choice.

This page provides a central source for advising and mentoring information—how to find mentors, how to choose your lab and thesis advisor, how to get the mentoring you need, and how to be a good mentor to those that you advise, such as undergraduates or rotation students.

Making the most of mentorships

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Stanford Biosciences, 1967: First synthesis of biologically active DNA in test tube
Stanford Biosciences, 1970: Development of the florescence-activated cell sorter
Stanford Biosciences, 1971: Discovery of RNA priming of DNA synthesis
Stanford Biosciences, 1972: First construction of a recombinant DNA molecule containing DNA from two different species
Stanford Biosciences, 1973: First expression of a foreign gene implanted in bacteria by recombinant DNA methods
Stanford Biosciences, 1984: Isolation of a gene coding for part of the T-cell receptor, a key to the immune system's function
Stanford Biosciences, 1987: Purification of first stem cells
Stanford Biosciences, 1988: Discovery of the nuclear factor of activated T cells
Stanford Biosciences, 1990: Discovery of "Off-switch" for genetic reproduction in bacteria
Stanford Biosciences, 1995: Development of the microarray technology that allows researchers to see at once which genes of the thousands present in a cell are switched "on"
Stanford Biosciences, 2000: First use of gene expression profiling to distinguish cancer sub-types
Stanford Biosciences, 1990-2001: Participation in the Human Genome Project; Stanford is 9th worldwide in contributions to the genome
Stanford Biosciences, 2001: The first molecular snapshot published of the protein machinery responsible for transcription in yeast — RNA polymerase II — in action; this helped explain how cells express all the information the human genome
Stanford Biosciences, 2002: First use of RNAi to switch off genes in mice. RNAi offers an extremely selective method to "mute" a single gene amongst the thousands in the genome, helping provide precise information about the role of the gene
Stanford Biosciences, 2009: A researcher sequences his own genome for less than $50,000 and with a team of just two others
Stanford Biosciences, 2007: Array tomography invented
Stanford Biosciences, 2007: For the first time, researchers use a healthy person's complete genome sequence to predict his risk for dozens of diseases