The CMP program is a joint venture of the UW-Madison Department of Pathology, the UW-Madison Graduate School, and the School of Medicine and Public Health. This interdisciplinary training environment embedded in an exciting and challenging basic and clinical translational research context, offers a high level of intelletual stimulation for pre-doctoral training. Our curriculum is novel at the UW, providing integrated training in fundamental concepts of modern pathobiology with an emphasis on biochemical, cellular and molecular approaches, and providing rigorous in-depth bench-level research training in understanding the fundamental bases of diseases. Our trainees and trainers participate in rigorous pathobiology courses and activities, and are offered in-depth research training in the pathobiology of cancer, nervous and immune system diseases and signal transduction in basic disease mechanisms. The program also provides the unique opportunity for trainees to participate in a pathology-based clinical clerkship. Upon graduation, our trainees have a fundamental knowledge and in-depth research experience in pathobiology and combined with an understanding of and exposure to translational clinical research.