Doctorate Program
It is impossible to imagine what would be known in biology and medicine without the work of hundreds of Italian scholars and scientists. Over more than two millennia, from Galen to Golgi, Roman and Italian science has increased our knowledge in the life sciences.
(Paweletz N. From Galen to Golgi: Birth of the Life Sciences in Italy. Nature Reviews 2001; 2:475-480)

Aims
The Italian institutions participating in this programme are recognized centers of excellence for research in oncology, endocrinology and biotechnology. This doctorate program is specifically designed to train students:
• to conduct and direct advanced research
• to identify important problems
• to compete at international level in their chosen field.
Emphasis will be placed on the transfer of innovative technology in basic research, diagnostics and the emerging therapeutic strategies.

Topics - Oncology
• Cooperation between oncogenes and neoplastic progression
• Transduction of the mitogenic signal
• Neoplastic transformation and regulation of cell differentiation
• Apoptosis
• Tumor genetics and familial neoplastic diseases
• Animal models of neoplasia
• Oncogenes, oncosuppressor genes and DNA repair genes
• Innovative diagnostic approaches
• Gene therapy and innovative therapeutic strategies

Topics – Endocrinology
• Determination and maintenance of the differentiated phenotype
• Regulation of gene expression in endocrine cells
• Regulation of endocrine function and its derangements
• Structure/function of proteins expressed in endocrine cells
• Thyroid diseases
• Endocrine neoplasias and multiple endocrine neoplastic syndromes
• The use of knock-out mice for the study of endocrine development
• Molecular mechanisms of obesity
• Molecular mechanisms of type II diabetes

Language
Training and teaching will be conducted mainly in English.
A knowledge of Italian is useful.