Graduate Education is an essential component of the training of a scientist, as it offers challenges and rewards very different from those of undergraduate study. This is true all over Europe and certainly in Italy, in which most university degrees in scientific disciplines may offer a high standard of education but generally fail to prepare students to the challenges of scientific research, i.e. the challenges of contributing to the advancement of human knowledge using cutting-edge technological tools and a rigorous experimental approach. For this reason, graduate programs are the best opportunity to provide to the students a combination of research and higher education standards, both of which can only be offered by an academic environment of excellence. A graduate student explores one field in depth, will gain mastery of a specialized subject matter, and will learn to communicate his knowledge to other scientists. In addition to that, a graduate student will have to acquire the professional skills that are required to develop a career in research, either at the academic or industrial level. The Vita-Salute University San Raffaele offers a choice of international Ph.D. Programs related to many aspects of biomedical science, ranging from cell and molecular biology, to immunology and neuroscience.