3.1 gpa... too low for PhD admissions?

[noorasix]

Hi everyone!

I graduated with a Bachelors degree in 2015 in Biochemistry from Rutgers University. My undergraduate GPA was close to a 3.4. At that time I had no research experience and I opted to do a masters in Chemistry to improve my CV, since I did not get accepted to PhD programs right away. Unfortunately my masters GPA has been even lower (around 3.1).

I had a 1 year research experience in undergrad (not significant enough to get a letter since the professor could not secure a tenure), and have been doing research ever since starting my masters. I will hopefully have a manuscript going in by December in a good journal (that's what the post doc has been saying). From here I expect to get a pretty strong letter too.

My General GRE score is 89% in QUANT/65% in VERBAL, and 4.5 in analytic writing. I took the CHem GRE and scored 79%.

So given my stats, what are my chances of getting in a top tier PhD program for Fall 2018 admissions? Is there anything I can do (like retaking the GRE, for instance) that will improve my application for a PhD program? Any input will be truly appreciated.

Please and thanks.