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 Graduate Programs 

Graduate students in MCCB are typically enrolled in either the Cancer Biology Program or the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program of the UMass Chan Medical School Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. However, MCCB faculty are affiliated with several other graduate programs—including Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology, Immunology and Microbiology, Neuroscience, Systems, Computational, and Quantitative Biology, and Translational Science—and students in any of these programs can perform their thesis work in a participating MCCB lab.

MD/PhD students in MCCB are typically enrolled in the Cancer Biology Program. The UMass Chan MD/PhD Program was established in 1988 and has earned distinguished status as an NIH-funded Medical Scientist Training Program. It is among the few MD/PhD Programs in the nation to offer training in areas spanning from basic biomedical to clinical and population health research. Students are engaged in both clinical and research training throughout the duration of the program, enabling them to develop a physician-scientist identity from the beginning of their training.


 Cancer Biology Program 

The Cancer Biology Program is home-based in MCCB and is co-led by Lucio Castilla, PhD, William Flavahan, PhD, and Marcus Ruscetti, PhD. The program provides students interested in pursuing a career in cancer biology with rigorous training in biochemistry, genetics, molecular and cell biology, as well as an understanding of the clinical aspects of cancer. This program is an integral component of the UMass Cancer Center and affords students the opportunity to participate in disease-based programs of the Cancer Center that are designed to translate achievements from the basic sciences to the clinical management of human cancers.

 Interdisciplinary Graduate Program

The Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (IGP) is co-led by Craig Peterson, PhD (in Program in Molecular Medicine) and MCCB faculty member Heidi Tissenbaum, PhD. The IGP provides students training in interdisciplinary approaches to biomedical research including classical genetics, molecular genetics, genomics/proteomics, biochemistry, and light and electron microscopy.