Graduate Students

Brewing Connections is a professional networking series coordinated by Yale Cancer Center’s Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination (CRTEC) Office in conjunction with Yale Cancer Center Grand Rounds. The series creates an informal, welcoming space for trainees from medical students to junior faculty to engage with national leaders in cancer research and clinical care over coffee and pastries.

This event is open to all and is designed to foster meaningful conversation around career pathways, mentorship, and professional development. By bringing together trainees, faculty, and visiting speakers, Brewing Connections promotes relationship-building, knowledge exchange, and community across the Yale Cancer Center.

The Yale Cancer Biology Training Program provides a unique cancer-focused training experience intended to spawn the next generation of cancer scientific leaders. Training covers the genetic and biological underpinnings of cancer, the pathway to development of new therapies based upon this knowledge, and the practical challenges in applying these new therapies in cancer clinics.

The goals of the program are to educate graduate students and postdoctoral trainees on practical clinical issues of oncology, and to prepare trainees to lead translational research on teams including basic scientists and clinicians.

For more information about the Yale Cancer Biology Training Program: David F. Stern, PhD

Yale CPC Training Program

The objective of the Yale CPC Training Program is to provide Fellows with rigorous methodological and content-oriented training from a multidisciplinary perspective through research, coursework, mentorship, and other activities, so that Fellows are equipped with the tools necessary to establish and sustain careers as scientific investigators, contributing to advances in CPC. We select Fellows with interest, experience, and fit with at least one of the five thematic areas (noting that there is often overlap across these areas).

For more information about the Yale CPC Training Program: Xiaomei Ma

Yale Courses/Workshops

Each student's curriculum is tailored to match one's background and interests while at the same time providing essential Track-specific training. Most Tracks have recommended or required courses, but students can choose electives that are outside of these recommendations. It is quite normal to find students from many different Tracks sitting side-by-side in the same classes. Biological and Biomedical Sciences provides an extensive menu of graduate courses covering the full spectrum of research disciplines, and descriptions of our most recent course offerings.

YCC Trainee Colloquium

The Yale Cancer Center (YCC) Annual Trainee Colloquium provides a dynamic forum for Yale trainees to showcase their cancer research, share ideas, and foster interdisciplinary collaboration. Each spring, we invite predoctoral MD, PhD, and MD-PhD students, postdoctoral associates and fellows, residents, clinical fellows, and graduates of the Cancer Biology Training Program to submit abstracts describing their current work in cancer research.

The colloquium features presentations across four key research areas:

• Basic Science Research and Bioinformatics
• Translational Research
• Clinical Research
• Population Science, Prevention, and Outcomes Research

Submitted abstracts are reviewed by the CRTEC Core Team. Selected trainees will be invited to deliver oral presentations during the event. From these presentations, four Research Excellence Prize recipients will be chosen and announced at the colloquium. Each awardee will receive a certificate and a $250 prize. For more information or questions, please contact crtec@yale.edu.

The 2026 YCC Trainee Colloquium will take place on May 15, 2026. Abstract applications open Feb. 20, 2026.