Graduate Programs | UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center

The MuSCLE T32 program is designed to mold predoctoral students into graduates equipped with the skills and knowledge essential for supporting MusculoSkeletal (MSK) health. The program emphasizes team mentoring, and brings together experts in biomedical engineering, materials science, immunology, and both basic and clinical faculty. Trainees gain experience in clinical exposure that deepen their understanding of technical training associated with fundamental MSK research. 

Scholars attend a five-part series workshops on Resilient Scientist. During this training, participants learned strategies required to thrive in research and healthcare careers with ways to navigate difficult situations and better handle stress and conflicts. The workshops are offered in the Fall. Small cohort-based group discussions are facilitated by Daniel Moglen, PhD., Clinical and Translational Science Center, UC Davis.

For more information, please contact the Office of Education, Training and Career Development.

The ARC-MD program provides medical students with foundational skills and professional development that promote a successful career as a physician scientist. The five-year program provides students with research and career mentorship, a unique curriculum, and community engagement within a supportive, longitudinal learning community.

Through interdisciplinary research and coursework, this program trains environmental health scientists to address pressing issues in the field. Students receive faculty mentorship from researchers in a variety of departments, including toxicology, molecular biology, cancer, genotoxicity, metabolic disorders, epigenetics, and more.

This program utilizes the resources and research of multiple UC Davis centers to promote and synergize approaches to disease prevention and public health. Trainees are well prepared for successful careers in academia, government, or the private sector.

Supporting students engaged in pre-doctoral training at the chemistry-biology interface, the Chemical Biology Program draws faculty from six different departments and five different colleges. The program prepares scholars for careers in the biomedical workforce with the communication and management skills necessary to direct research programs that integrate approaches across the two disciplines.

Pre-doctoral and post-doctoral scholars will grow into independent investigators through the Comparative Lung Biology and Medicine Program’s interactive research environments, innovative and competitive research themes and projects, and training opportunities.

A graduate research training program supported by the NIH for veterinarians seeking to complete a Ph.D. for careers in biomedical research. The program is to facilitate broad training in various aspects of comparative medicine and supports D.V.M.’s conducting research in various Schools across UC Davis, including the School of Medicine. The program is administered by the Center for Immunology & Infectious Diseases (CIID) on the UC Davis campus and co-sponsored by the Office of Graduate Studies, the CIID and the School of Veterinary Medicine.

Our first-in-the-nation Comparative Oncology program trains the next generation of veterinarian- and physician-scientists. Drawing on UC Davis’s strengths as a research institution, pre- and post-doctoral scholars have access to faculty mentors from the School of Veterinary Medicine and School of Medicine as well as the Colleges of Agricultural Science, Environmental Science, and Engineering. Dual D.V.M.-Ph.D. students work to integrate the study of companion animals, which have naturally-occurring cancers, with human cancer biology and therapy (comparative oncology to advance the health of people and animals.

The F Award Writing Workshop at UC Davis is a hands-on program for pre- and postdoctoral scholars preparing NIH NRSA applications. Participants will draft, revise, and finalize their grant applications with feedback from peers and mentors, enhancing their grant writing and communication skills. Priority is given to cancer-focused and translational research scholars.

Future biomedical researchers broaden their research perspectives and skills in this program. Leveraging the multidisciplinary biomedical research environment at UC Davis with its highly successful program in drug development, trainees explore the concepts of drug discovery and development from target identification into the clinic. Trainees receive focused and student-tailored training in pharmacology principles and partner with other pharmacology students on interdisciplinary experiences. The program exposes students to novel drugs and possible therapeutics for cardiovascular, neurological, immunological diseases and cancer.

The STAR Program identifies, nurtures, and supports veterinary students through work with faculty mentors in all aspects of veterinary and biomedical research. This program teaches trainees five fundamental research objectives:

1. How to gain knowledge and understanding of one’s field of science;
2. Formulating a scientifically sound and testable hypothesis;
3. Identifying specific objectives, conduct controlled methodical experiments, and develop technical expertise;
4. Analyzing results, deriving conclusions, proposing additional experiments, and anticipating new directions; and
5. Conveying research findings succinctly and convincingly to others.

The program supports students with a variety of interests ranging from biomedical engineering to vector borne diseases, to epidemiology.

In this program, trainees gain a breadth of knowledge, research training, and career skills, that prepares them for a successful career in the national biomedical workforce. The most qualified Ph.D. students in molecular and cellular biology work with top faculty 16 academic departments with a variety of research interests including genetics, biochemistry, structural biology, physiology, and neuroscience. The program integrates Graduate Group coursework, Ph.D. thesis research in individual laboratories, and professional development experiences with a set of coherent training activities. By combining discipline-specific training in faculty members’ laboratories with interdisciplinary scientific training, trainees are well-prepared to enter the biomedical workforce with a broad perspective and skill set.

This program prepares students with dual D.V.M.-Ph.D. degrees to become compassionate and exceptional veterinarian-scientists involved in basic and translational research for the advancement of health in people, animals, and the environment. Participants in the program receive clinical and biomedical research training at UC Davis’s top ranked School of Veterinary Medicine and the Colleges of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Human Medicine.