This track serves doctoral students from University departments not included in the focused tracks 1 to 4. Hence the Open Track will accommodate interdisciplinary curricula tailored to students with unique interests. A strength of this track is the opportunity to support students studying the ethical, legal and social issues in genetics. Indeed, the Human Genome Project has a formal program in this area (known as ``ELSI'') which funds such activities within its center grants. The Utah Center for Human Genome Research has included a strong ELSI program since 1991.
Host departments: unspecified; any department can function as a host department for students accepted into the Open Track. Likely candidates for science and engineering students are physics, chemistry, anthropology, pharmaceutics, and materials science and engineering. For ELSI research, possible host departments include philosophy, sociology, political science, communications, psychology, and history.