The goal of our PhD program is to select, educate and promote the best possible PhD students in the field of allergy research and to strengthen long-term perspectives of allergy research in Austria but also abroad and to develop innovative strategies for diagnosis, therapy and prevention of allergic diseases. 
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The MCCA program is currently operated by 16 dedicated Faculty Members (9 female, 7 male) comprising a truly interdisciplinary mix. MCCA staff covering besides most basic science aspects (i.e. molecular biology, protein chemistry, structural biology, cell biology, animal models) also medical aspects of dermatology, respiratory diseases and ENT, hematology, immunology, pathophysiology, laboratory medicine and pediatric allergies including food allergy are represented. Despite this interdisciplinary setting, the strong dedication to allergy research is the unifying principle bringing individual researchers with such seemingly unrelated backgrounds closely together. It is their common aim to combat an important disease, i.e. IgE-associated allergy, and to develop in a concerted effort, novel strategies for diagnosis, prevention and cure.
Besides an ambitious and intensive training program, MCCA offers a personalized mentoring-environment for the individual student based on intra and extramural scientists and members of the international scientific advisory board (ISAB) providing support, advice as well as further career-planning. Moreover, the program has committed itself to provide plenty of opportunities to the PhD-students to ‘meet and mingle’ (retreats, symposia, allergy club meetings, happy hours) in order to provide the necessary social framework for a happy and fulfilling life within MCCA.