History

The CMB Training Program has been an important component of graduate education at Duke University since 1975, and has been continuously funded by the NIH. Today, CMB is the largest and broadest PhD training program at Duke, with 134 faculty members in many departments. At present there are about 110 predoctoral students in the Program, and well over 500 predoctoral students have been supported by the Program since its inception.

At the core of the Program is the excellent research environment in the Basic Sciences of the Medical School and the Biological Sciences of the University. The Departments of Biochemistry, Biology, Cell Biology, Immunology, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Neurobiology, Pathology, and Pharmacology and Cancer Biology each have faculty in the Training Program. In addition, faculty in the Clinical Sciences who have secondary appointments in the basic sciences and who have a strong focus on basic research are members of the Program, giving our students a nearly unprecedented range of research options to choose from.

Through the Training Program, predoctoral students receive classroom and laboratory training that prepares them for competitive research at the highest level. The success of the Training Program through the years is evidenced by the ongoing success of our former students. Of those who have entered and passed through the Program in the past 10 years, more than 91% have received or are on track to receive the PhD degree. Of those who received PhDs, more than 96% are pursuing careers in research. Of course, many of those are still in postdoctoral training; but of those who have moved beyond the postdoctoral years, many remain in academic research or industry.

In great measure the success of the Program depends upon our ability to attract excellent students. Naturally, the competition each year for the 15-20 students receiving fellowship support from the Program is extremely intense. Our admission standards are quite high, and the pool of applicants who accept Duke University are outstanding and contribute greatly to the scientific life of Duke University.