Medical Scientist Training Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests continuing Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) support for the Combined MD/PhD Training Program at the University of Minnesota. The Program remains committed to a single common goal: to train the next generation of physician scientist-leaders equipped to push technology and clinical application to a level of investigative excellence consonant with the best biomedical research in the world. The MSTP is designed to provide instruction leading to the MD and PhD degrees in 7-8 years. The Program employs the traditional training sequence of medical school (2 years) > graduate school (3-5 years) > medical school (1.5-2 years). However, exciting new curricular changes are facilitating the transition between the two degree components. The centerpiece is a new course entitled "Ambulatory Clinics for the Physician Scientist". This course allows students to work side-by-side with the physician scientist of their choosing, thereby exposing students in the latter phases of graduate training to the joy of interfacing their basic science skills to specific clinical problems. Research opportunities abound in the laboratories of the 121 faculty preceptors. Areas of excellence include Biochemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Cancer Biology, Cell Biology, Chemistry, Developmental Biology, Epidemiology, Genetics, Immunology, Microbiology, Neuroscience and Pharmacology. The research opportunities are supported by a major expansion of laboratory facilities during the last several years, resulting in an infrastructure of instrumentation and laboratory space that has enhanced research across the entire medical school. Students in the University of Minnesota MSTP can explore a comprehensive number of scientific challenges in contemporary biomedical research, coupled with a choice from all the major medical subspecialties for their clinical focus. Our graduates have in the past and are currently using their MSTP education as a springboard to conduct biomedical research in major medical schools across the United States, thereby fulfilling the national mission of this critical program in medical research and health care.