The main aim of this three-year program is to provide a high-level scientific training for students with a background in life sciences, medicine, engineering, physics, chemistry, pharmacology interested in studying organism functions in health and disease with a multidisciplinary approach.

The program offers research and education opportunities for ambitious students who wish to work towards an interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree covering one or more of the following areas: chemistry, biochemistry, bioinformatics and computational biology, genetics, genomics, microbiology, immunology, and cellular, developmental, molecular, structural and systems biology.

A distinguishing feature of this program is the possibility of interacting and networking with fellow students with different background and expertise and of approaching the study of organism function in health and disease in a comprehensive fashion.

The practical work is complemented by lectures, seminars and courses involving all students and faculty members with the aim of developing broader knowledge based on a common language, essential in modern science.

Studied organisms include bacteria, yeast, plants, flies, nematodes, mouse and human systems, with possible clinical connections.

Three curricula are foreseen:
1) Biology and Genetics of Prokaryotes and Viruses; Host-pathogen interaction including immune responses.
This curriculum will focus on the molecular mechanisms underlying the fundamental processes of the biology of prokaryotic cells and viruses and their interactions with host. 

2) Bioinformatics and Omics, Structure and function of macromolecules, Drug Discovery.
This curriculum will focus on the properties of biological macromolecules. Different approaches will be exploited, which involve structural biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, drug design and chemistry. The final goal is to provide the conceptual framework necessary to interpret biological complexity in relevant phenomena such as cell reprogramming, cancer, host-pathogen interaction.

3) Molecular and Cellular Biology and Genetics of Eukaryotic cells; Developmental Biology; Cellular physiology.
This curriculum will focus on the molecular mechanisms underlying the fundamental processes of the biology of Eukaryotic cells.