The cure for cancer isn’t going to happen in a vacuum—or, for that matter, in a laboratory devoid of clinical insight. This year the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Miller School of Medicine introduced a new graduate program in cancer biology that’s designed to cultivate scientists whose research is driven by clinical factors.

The cornerstone of the Sheila and David Fuente Ph.D. Program in Cancer Biology, which admits its first students in the fall 2006 semester, is two-tier mentoring. Each student has a Ph.D. mentor, in whose laboratory the student will conduct dissertation research, as well as a physician mentor, who will provide students with a clinical perspective on areas related to cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic intervention. The physician mentor also serves on the student’s Ph.D. committee. In addition, the program has specific logic and scientific reasoning courses that focus on how laboratory observations are translated into clinical applications.

“This program gives students a unique perspective that I never had as a Ph.D. student, and it is a great catalyst to stimulate more interactions between our basic science and clinical faculty,” says David Helfman, director of the cancer biology program and a cell biologist.

A $1.6 million gift from University trustee David Fuente and his wife, Sheila, supports the cancer biology program, which is one of about 30 such programs nationwide.