Research Programs for MD-Ph.D. & Ph.D. Students and Post-Doctoral Fellows
Two tracks, Cancer Biology & Therapy and Radiobiology & Molecular Therapeutics, will be available for doctoral curriculum and post-doctoral programs.
First track: Cancer Biology and Therapy
- MD-Ph.D./Ph.D. Program: This program will be for four years. Each graduate student will have one research faculty and one clinical faculty to provide an intensive learning experience in basic research and clinical research. There will be a curriculum of courses that graduates will obtain credits that are required to graduate apart from the credits for the primary research project. Courses will include topics such as cancer epidemiology, carcinogenesis, pathogenesis, angiogenesis, tumour-stromal interactions, invasion and metastasis, defective cell cycle regulation and signalling pathways in cancer, cancer metabolism, tumour immunology and immunotherapy, cancer stem cells, cancer genomes, cancer epigenetics, radiation biology and experimental systems including animal models and tumour imaging. Diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in clinical oncology involving conventional and practical strategies will be covered. In addition, lectures on good research practice, as well as assays, methods, instrumentation, biostatistics, and bioinformatics that are relevant to cancer, will be included.
- Post-doctoral Program: Post-doctoral fellows will be trained in Dr. Mittal’s lab from Cornell in designing lung cancer research projects that will be applied in the Indian setting. Fellows will also be trained to discover novel antigen testing for LUNG cancer detection and vaccine development.
Second track: Radiobiology and Molecular Therapeutics
- MD-Ph.D./Ph.D. Program: This program will be for four years and will be the first of its kind in India. Each graduate student will have one research faculty and one clinical faculty to provide an intensive learning experience in basic research and clinical research. There will be a curriculum of courses that graduates will obtain credits that are required to graduate apart from the credits for the primary project. The core concept of this track is to impart to students the main principles of the multi-faceted effects of radiation microenvironment environment. The courses will include: alterations at the DNA and chromosomal level, cell survival, dose-response relationship, cell cycle and radiosensitivity, repair of radiation damage, oxygenation, hyperthermia and radiation, radiation carcinogenesis, therapeutic potential and new modalities, radio sensitizing and radio-protecting agents, molecular basis of radiation-induced gene regulation, Radiation, Immune modulation and immunotherapy, and high-dose, ultra-high dose rate, and spatially fractionated radiation therapy. In addition to these courses, these students will take cancer biology courses to complete basic course credits.
- Post-doctoral Program: Post-doctoral fellows will be trained in the lab of Dr. Guha at Albert Einstein, NY, in (1) radiation experimental therapeutics to develop tumour sensitizers and normal tissue protectants (as well as mitigators); and (2) radiation and vaccine development for solid tumours (such as Flt3 ligand).