Medical Scientist Training Program

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PROJECT SUMMARY The mission of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) is to train physician-scientists who will become leaders in biomedical research to understand, detect, treat, and prevent human disease. To accomplish this mission, we have three goals, 1) to recruit a diverse group of students with outstanding potential to become research-active physician-scientists, 2) to provide training in an inclusive, safe, and stimulating learning environment where students can acquire the foundational knowledge and the technical, operational, and professional skills necessary to pursue a career as a research-active physician- scientist and a leader in academic medicine and/or biomedical research, and 3) to support/facilitate their professional development to transition to the next stage in the training continuum. Through a holistic admissions process, we seek to identify individuals with the intelligence, curiosity, creativity, resilience, perseverence, and enthusiam for science that is essential for a successful research career. We guide the students through a program tailored to meet their individual needs and interests. The program provides rigorous, integrated medical and research training through a flexible, continously evolving curriculum that includes 1) specialized MSTP courses, and 2) integration of graduate and medical school curriculum in the first 2 years and throughout the program. The training program has 3 phases. In the first 2 years students take a combination of medical, graduate, and MSTP-specific courses to gain the didactic foundation for their reseach and clinical training. Research rotations and guidance from program leadership assist them in thesis lab selection. In the program’s 2nd phase, students perform independent, original research under their mentor’s guidance. They publish their discoveries in high quality, peer-reviewed papers, and prepare and defend a PhD thesis. Participation in a PhD phase MSTP-run, outpatient clinic builds clinical skills. In the final phase, they complete their clinical training. A multifaceted approach trains students to perform rigorous and reproducible research in a responsible, ethical manner. Currently, the program has 113 trainees, 41% woman, 28% from groups underrepresented in medicine (twice percentage in the applicant pool), and 11% with disabilities. We will expand to ~120-130 trainees by increasing the entering class size to 16. Since its inception in 1964, as one of the first three NIH-funded MSTPs, 484 trainees have graduated. 413 have completed postgraduate training and published over 19,000 papers, an average of ~47 papers/graduate. 74% have jobs at academic medical centers, research institutes, NIH or pharmaceutical companies. By various measures, the graduates have achieved outstanding success and advanced biomedical research and academic medicine. We propose to further integrate graduate and medical training, and increase opportunities for involvement in clinical and translational research to prepare a future generation of physician-scientists who will be at the leading edge of biomedical research with the ultimate goal of improving human health and reducing the burden of disease.