The Sheila and David Fuente Graduate Program in Cancer Biology is a University-wide interdisciplinary training program that involves clinical and basic science faculty from multiple departments, schools, and colleges of the University of Miami. The objective of this program is to provide a unique multidisciplinary training environment for highly qualified individuals that will prepare them for independent research and teaching careers.

The scientific focus is cancer research with an emphasis on the biology of cancer and the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. The program emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach which encompasses concepts and state-of-the–art techniques of molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, genomics, proteomics, structural biology, cell biology, and biostatistics and integrates students into the extensive and rapidly expanding clinical and translational research programs at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Students interface with both basic scientists and clinical cancer researchers as they develop and design multidisciplinary interdependent research projects. Graduates students have an opportunity to build relationships with investigators who designe and develop  clinical research programs including the implementation of diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic applications.

This interdisciplinary Sheila and David Fuente Graduate Program in Cancer Biology is built on an innovative Ph.D. curriculum to train future scientific leaders in cancer biology.

• To provide a multidisciplinary foundation in cancer biology that demonstrates the interrelationship of biological discovery and clinical application.
• To emphasize explicit training in scientific reasoning.
• To provide students with two-tier mentoring. The students will recieve guidance from both a research mentor and a physician mentor: the research mentor is the dissertation advisor, while the physician mentor will provide the student with a clinical perspective in cancer bology.