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Course Catalog

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Detailed Information

Program of Study

The Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program is a collaborative effort between the University of South Florida and Moffitt Cancer Center designed to prepare young scientists to meet the future challenges of cancer research. The program was founded in 2000 and embraces the concept that curing cancer is based on two challenges: unraveling the molecular and biological basis for tumor development and devising new detection and treatment approaches based on those discoveries. To meet these challenges, the program provides an integrated curriculum that incorporates training in multiple disciplines encompassing immunology, cancer genetics, cell and molecular biology, signal transduction, drug discovery, functional genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, chemistry, and translational cancer therapies.

The Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program draws participating faculty members from multiple university departments and colleges. The majority of the faculty is housed within the Moffitt Cancer Center as part of the Department of Oncologic Sciences and includes both basic science and clinical research investigators. The program is strengthened by faculty members from the College of Medicine, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the College of Engineering. Members encompass five broad areas of interest: immunology, molecular oncology, drug discovery, cancer control, and clinical investigations. Each area shares the common goal of understanding, preventing, and curing cancer.

Students begin research during the first semester, typically rotating through two to three laboratories. Formal course work is usually completed by the end of the second academic year. Qualifying examinations consist of a written exam and the development and defense of a unique research proposal. Most students complete the qualifying examinations before the beginning of the third academic year. Past graduates have earned their Ph.D. degrees within four to five years of entering the program.

Research Facilities

Academic core facilities and individual faculty research laboratories are located in two crosswalk-connected structures: the Moffitt Research Center and the new Vincent A. Stabile Research Tower. The Moffitt Cancer Center Hospital is adjacent to these research buildings, facilitating the Center’s goal to rapidly move laboratory discoveries into the clinical setting. In addition to well-equipped faculty laboratories, a full range of core facilities, including high-throughput drug screening and molecular modeling, experimental pathology, biostatistics and bioinformatics, analytic microscopy, flow cytometry, molecular biology, molecular imaging, proteomics, and mouse modeling are provided for the faculty members and students. In addition, the Moffitt Cancer Center is home to the National Functional Genomics Center, which is an integrated program focusing on gene expression analysis, genetics, proteomics, and translational research to develop new technologies in molecular medicine.

Financial Aid

All students in good standing receive full financial support for tuition, fees, and health insurance. For the academic year 2009–10, a stipend of $22,600 is awarded to entering students to cover living expenses. A cost of living increase is awarded to students in their second year and beyond on an annual basis.

Cost of Study

The cost of tuition and fees are typically covered by the financial support described in the Financial Aid section.

Living and Housing Costs

USF campus housing for single and married students is available on a first-come, first-served basis. The majority of the students in the program live off campus, and numerous apartment complexes ring the USF campus, many of which are serviced cost free by the University’s bus transportation system. Discounts and special rental packages are available from a number of these apartment complexes. Rent for a one-bedroom/one-bath apartment can start as low as $450 a month.

Student Group

The USF campuses had total enrollment of 46,174 for fall 2008, of whom 35,224 were undergraduate and 8,630 were graduate students (with 1,343 international students from 132 countries). The Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program currently has 26 students from across the United States, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Bulgaria, South Korea, India, and Switzerland.

Location

USF and the Moffitt Cancer Center are part of a burgeoning geographic region situated off the Gulf of Mexico referred to as the Tampa Bay area. Tampa Bay boasts a booming employment rate, with 60 percent of Florida’s high-tech industries located along the Interstate 4 corridor. A climate that is consistently sunny and pleasant encourages year-round festivals and community activities. Broadway shows and traveling art exhibits stop in Tampa on a regular basis. Hispanic magazine rates Tampa the “Top City in the U.S. for Hispanics.” Tampa is also one of the most broadband-wired cities in America, ranking second in a recent AOL poll.

The University and The Center

USF is a top-tier, metropolitan research university distinguished by excellent research and graduate education. Strong interdisciplinary programs put USF on the leading edge of research in a number of areas; USF is one of only three Florida public universities classified by the Carnegie Foundation in the top tier of research universities. The doctoral program in cancer biology blends USF research capacity with the strengths of the nationally recognized H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, the only National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center in the state of Florida.

Applying

The application deadline for fall admission is February 1 for domestic applicants and January 1 for international applicants. Applications must be completed on or before the deadline to be considered for the fall semester. Applications must be completed online, with required supporting documents sent directly to the Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program office. This is important to ensure the application is reviewed as quickly as possible. The link for the online application can be found on the USF Graduate School Web site (http://www.grad.usf.edu). A list of support documents can be found on the program’s Web site (http://www.cancerbiology.usf.edu). Applicants are required to have at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from a college or university of recognized standing. All applicants should possess a strong background in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences. Evaluation for admission is based on previous academic record, letters of recommendation, scores on the GRE and TOEFL (if applicable), and acquired research experience.

The Faculty and Their Research

• Deepak Agrawal, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Cell growth regulation; protein-protein interactions; bioengineered substrates; computational biology; bioinformatics.
• Mark G. Alexandrow, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences, and Member-in-Residence, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. Understanding the mechanisms by which growth factor signals, or inhibitory TGF-beta signals and the Ras-Rb pathway, regulate the assembly and function of pre-(DNA) replication complexes (preRCs) in late G1 phase, and how the DNA replication machinery and preRCs utilize chromatin remodeling complexes to gain access to the DNA substrate during late G1 and S-phase.
• Scott J. Antonia, M.D., Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Developing novel immunotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of cancer patients.
• Wenlong Bai, Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Pathology. Role of steroid and vitamin D receptors in the development and treatment of human cancers.
• Amer A. Beg, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Molecular mechanisms involved in dendritic cell and T-lymphocyte activation; regulation of innate and adaptive immune response genes by NF-?B transcription factors.
• George Blanck, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Understanding the interferon cell-signaling pathway in normal and tumor cells.
• Esteban Celis, M.D., Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Recognition and destruction of tumor cells by T lymphocytes; development of immune-based therapies for cancer.
• Srikumar Chellappan, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Mechanisms by which extracellular signals regulate the cell-cycle machinery and how a loss of this regulation leads to oncogenesis.
• Jiandong Chen, Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. How p53 is normally regulated and how it is inactivated in tumors without undergoing mutations; identify compounds to block MDM2 function and activate p53 in tumor cells.
• Jin Q. Cheng, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Study of genetic alterations and their molecular mechanisms in human ovarian cancer.
• William Douglas Cress Jr., Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Understanding the role of members of the E2F and Bcl-2 families in cell growth and survival, with particular interest in the role of these factors in lung cancer chemotherapy.
• William S. Dalton, M.D., Ph.D.; Director of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. Drug resistance in cancer cells: mechanism of multidrug resistance due to transport genes, role of the Fas/Fas ligand in drug response, and cell adhesion molecules and their role in drug resistance.
• Julie Y. Djeu, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Molecular mechanisms by which NK cells kill tumor cells.
• Jia Fang, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Molecular mechanisms of various histone modifications regulate the chromatin structure and in turn mediate different cellular processes.
• Gloria Ferreira, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Biochemistry and molecular regulation of the biosynthesis of heme, the major component of proteins such as hemoglobin, myoglobin, and cytochromes.
• Dmitry I. Gabrilovich, M.D., Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Mechanisms of tumor-associated immunosuppression; development of new effective cancer vaccines.
• Anna R. Giuliano, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Human papillomavirus (HPV)–related carcinogenesis; establish a cohort to assess the natural history of HPV in men and evaluate the utility of a novel biomarker of cervical cancer risk to be utilized in conjunction with HPV testing.
• Dmitry B. Goldgof, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Motion and deformation analysis; computer vision; image processing and its biomedical applications; bioinformatics; pattern recognition.
• Thomas M. Guadagno, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Biochemical controls that regulate cell division: determining the signaling pathways that regulate the mitotic spindle apparatus.
• Lawrence O. Hall, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Hybrid reasoning systems; machine learning; data mining; pattern recognition; integrating AI into medical image processing.
• Eric Haura, M.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Oncogenic signal transduction pathways involved in the pathogenesis of lung cancer: understanding the role of tyrosine kinase pathways and STAT signaling in lung cancer.
• Lori Hazlehurst, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Delineating mechanisms of de novo drug resistance associated with anthracyclines and anthracenediones.
• Johnathan M. Lancaster, M.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Molecular genetic etiology of ovarian cancer development, progression, and response to therapy.
• Ji-Hyun Lee, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Developing methods for repeated measurement/longitudinal data; tools for testing goodness-of-fit of models for correlated binary data.
• Gary Litman, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Pediatrics. Understanding both the mechanisms that diversify the adaptive immune response and the basis for variation in novel immune-like receptors that affect innate immunity.
• Mark McLaughlin, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Chemistry and Department of Oncologic Sciences. Development of peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) that are water soluble and cell membrane permeable.
• Shyam S. Mohapatra, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Internal Medicine. Prophylactic and therapeutic modulation of upper- and lower-airway diseases using gene expression therapy.
• Alvaro N. A. Monteiro, Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Role of genes involved in the development of breast and ovarian cancer: function of the tumor suppressor gene BRCA1.
• Jessica L. Moore, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Division of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology. Studies of cancer genetics, using the small freshwater zebrafish, Danio rerio, as a model organism for human cancer.
• Dave Morgan, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Fundamental changes in aging brain and age-related neurological disorders; role of astrocytes and microglial cells in the brain’s reaction to injury.
• Meera Nanjundan, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Division of Cell, Microbiology and Molecular Biology. Role of aberrant splicing in lung and other cancers.
• Tuya Pal, M.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Ovarian cancer and mismatch repair deficiency; genetic and hormonal risk factors for breast cancer in African American women.
• Jong Park, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Differential cancer risk among ethnic groups using gene profiling and genotyping analysis.
• W. J. Pledger, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Regulatory mechanisms controlling cellular proliferation, differentiation, and the mechanisms involved in tumor development
• Richard S. Pollenz, Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Biology. Response of organisms to environmental stress (chemical contaminants, hydrocarbons, low oxygen) at the molecular level.
• Huntington Potter, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Mechanisms of chromosome missegregation leading to aneuploid cells and the role in Alzheimer’s disease.
• Gary W. Reuther, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Identifying novel oncogenes that contribute to the formation and progression of cancer.
• Kristina Schmidt, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Division of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology. Understanding how eukaryotic cells preserve the integrity of their genome through genetic studies of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
• Ernst Schönbrunn, Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. The elucidation of the structure-activity relationship of medicinally important proteins.
• Saïd M. Sebti, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Mechanisms by which normal cells become malignant, with a major focus on growth factor signal transduction pathways and novel cancer drugs.
• Ed Seto, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Regulation of cellular and viral gene expression related to cancer.
• Keiran Smalley, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Integrating genetic and cell signaling information to identify novel subgroups of melanoma and developing novel therapeutic strategies for each of these groups.
• Eduardo M. Sotomayor, M.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Cellular and molecular mechanism(s) involved in tolerance induction; design strategies aimed to prevent and/or revert this unresponsive state and therefore enhance the efficacy of the current generation of immunotherapeutic strategies.
• Daniel M. Sullivan, M.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. How cancer cells become resistant to the antitumor drugs used to treat human malignancies.
• Melvyn S. Tockman, M.D., Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Translational research into discovery of markers of neoplastic transformation and confirmation of these markers in specimens from human populations.
• Sheng Wei, M.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Elucidation of the signal pathway for activation of human neutrophil function by cytokines and bacterial products.
• Kenneth L. Wright, Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms controlling genes involved in antigen presentation and immune function.
• Jie Wu, Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Reveal the signal transduction mechanisms that control cell proliferation, differentiation, survival, and motility and explore key signaling molecules as targets for cancer therapy.
• Tim Yeatman, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. Characterization of human c-Src in the development and progression of human colon cancer; developing gene expression profiles to improve molecular staging of cancer.
• Xue-Zhong Yu, M.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Sciences. T-cell response to transplantation antigen and tumor; how signals through antigen receptors and costimulatory receptors modulate T-cell activation or tolerance.
• Xiaohong Zhang, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. Role of HDAC6 and its novel substrate, cortactin, in human cancers, particularly in ovarian and breast cancers.

Correspondence and Information

Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
12902 Magnolia Drive, MRC-4East
Tampa, Florida 33612
Telephone: 813-745-6876
Fax: 813-745-7264
Email: CancerPHD@moffitt.org