The Doctoral Program in Nutrition and Metabolic Biology integrates a number of fields relating to human health and disease. Nutrition is relevant to many areas of basic research as well as clinical medicine and public health, all, major strengths of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. The emphasis of this program is on educating students to become independent scientists through rigorous training in the fundamentals of nutritional and metabolic biology and thorough preparation for bench research leading to a dissertation. Instruction is organized around a core area of concentration through a combination of courses, seminars, tutorials, and laboratory research.