The Cell & Developmental Biology (CDB) Home Area has developed a training program designed to create the next generation of leaders in this dynamic field. The strengths of CDB at UCLA are broad and deep, covering a wide array of the most fundamental questions in biology. The faculty of CDB study both basic processes within single cells, as well as how these processes contribute to the development of entire organisms. Students in CDB will have direct interactions and formal mentoring from top scientists in the world studying stem cells and regeneration, morphogenesis, metabolism, cell structure and signaling, chromatin biology, and cancer. Other scientists within the CDB are focused on integrating this information to model human disease. Students will have the opportunity to rotate in three laboratories their first year while choosing amongst classes that provide exposure to the latest concepts and techniques in a flexible curriculum that utilizes, primarily, research-based approaches. After the first year, students choose their thesis labs and work with a mentor who will guide their training until conferral of the Ph.D. Along the way, CDB will provide a plethora of outlets for interaction, discussion and collaboration through training grants, journal clubs, seminar series, and workshops. In addition, the faculty of CDB are well-integrated with various centers that provide significant resources to potentiate both research and training such as: The Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine, the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Molecular Biology Institute, the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, The Center for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.