Why CMP

The mission of the CMP Program is to provide graduate students with interdisciplinary and integrated training in the pathogenesis of human diseases with emphasis on molecular, cellular and biochemical approaches. Since pathology is a broad discipline, there are four main focus areas for disease pathogenesis in our program: cancer pathobiology, immunopathology, neuropathology, and signal transduction in the pathogenesis of human diseases. To provide in-depth understanding of common mechanisms in cellular and molecular changes that underlie diseases, we offer courses where clinicians and basic researchers provide side-by-side training. Pre-doctoral graduate training is conducted in an intellectual interdisciplinary environment embedded in an exciting and challenging basic and clinical translational research context. The objective is to educate trainees so that they have a fundamental knowledge of pathology and molecular medicine, and have an in-depth research experience that combines pathobiological and translational clinical research. Additionally, we seek to increase each individual student’s appreciation of how specific disease processes directly impact individual patients, while fostering the application of the student’s specific research area to potential new concepts in clinical care and treatment.

The Cellular and Molecular Pathology (CMP) Graduate Training Program is an NIH supported T32 training program which focuses on the rigorous didactic training in fundamental basic biomedical sciences combined with interdisciplinary and innovative training in the pathogenesis of major human diseases. It is a joint venture of the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison Graduate School, the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and the School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH).

The goal of the CMP program is to create a stimulating and robust intellectual environment
for predoctoral training embedded in a dynamic basic and clinical translational research atmosphere in order to
develop the skills needed to move biological knowledge toward clinical application. Biomedical Graduate
Training for the future demands that first rate academic scientists graduate with appropriate operational,
technical and professional skills that will position them for diverse bioscience careers in academia, industry
or government. The primary mission of the CMP program is to answer this demand and prepare our graduates for productive careers in the rapidly evolving biomedical research field. The program provides
operational (in-depth knowledge, rigorous and reproducible experimental design, critical thinking), technical
(teaching state-of-the-art methods, rigor and reproducibility) and professional (career development, IDPs and
other opportunities) skills to ensure student success.

The overall objective of CMP is to educate trainees so that they have a fundamental knowledge of pathology and molecular medicine, and have an in-depth research experience that combines pathobiological and translational clinical research.
CMP’s specific objective is to ensure optimal PhD completion rates and time-to-degree with the implementation of monitored IDPs, student success and progress monitoring. CMP objectives will integrate measurable outcomes the program intends to
achieve, such as appropriate completion rates, career placement outcomes and student retention rates.

The Program draws 85 PhD, MD/PhD or MD funded faculty trainers from 24 departments. Our curriculum provides
interdisciplinary and integrated training in fundamental concepts in modern pathobiology with an emphasis on
biochemical, cellular and molecular approaches to the study of human disease, including training in statistics,
rigor and reproducibility and responsible conduct in research. CMP helps students to develop teaching and
leadership skills through committee service, presentations and workshop teaching.