The overarching goal of the NYU Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) is to train students to move fluidly between the realms of rigorous experimental or computational biology and compassionate, evidence-based care of patients.
We aim to train future physician-scientists who will make significant contributions to the advancement of biomedical science and health care and who will become the next generation of national leaders of academic medicine. The mechanism whereby we propose to accomplish these goals is to select a group of highly accomplished and motivated students who will complete both our medical and graduate curricula and finish our program with a dual MD and PhD degrees. Central to our Program is NYU School of Medicine (NYUSoM) and the Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences (SIGBS). The former is among the oldest in the nation with a long history of transformative biomedical research and a current ranking in the top 10 of research medical schools. The latter supports 16 training programs, confers PhD degrees, and emphasizes biostatistics & exploratory data analysis, grant writing, rigor and reproducibility, responsible conduct of research, and individual development plan. Importantly, our proposed MSTP is far more than the sum of these two parts. With more than a half-century of experience, our MSTP has evolved into a carefully constructed program that adds tremendous value to medical and graduate training. Value added components of the MSTP include academic/scientific (e.g. faculty and student organized seminars, annual retreats, and physician-scientist role model lunches), clinical enrichment during graduate school (e.g. clinicopathological conferences, medical grand rounds, and clinical preceptorships), community building (e.g. Big Sib program, mental wellness, student organized outings, and an annual retreat), and an extensive system of advising with emphasis on career development. We offer three pathways through the MSTP curriculum: a traditional pathway that incorporates graduate work in between the pre-clerkship and clerkship portions of medical school, one that allows for some clinical clerkships before graduate work, and an accelerated pathway that allows students to enter the three-year medical school curriculum that includes transition to post-graduate residency training at NYU. Paramount in our program is mentoring. Our 98 training faculty were selected from a pool of more than 230 principal investigators at NYUSoM to offer training in a wide spectrum cutting-edge biomedical research. All participating faculty above the rank of assistant professor have outstanding training records that demonstrate high standards of mentoring. They receive mandatory training in lab management and mentoring. Our trainees are selected from an exceedingly qualified pool of applicants. The program is highly competitive; this year we received 469 applications for a class of 10-12. Students are selected based on scholastic achievement, passion for and accomplishment in biomedical research, and the qualities of professionalism, judgement and empathy that are required of physicians. Great effort is made to enhance diversity by recruiting and retaining underrepresented minority students.
The goal of this MSTP training program is to train students to move fluidly between the realms of rigorous experimental or computational biology and compassionate, evidence- based care of patients. We will develop a diverse pool of well-trained physician scientists through high quality research training, clinical training, and mentored research and clinical experiences. Our trainees will be equipped with clinical, research, and professional skills to make significant contributions to the advancement of biomedical science and health care.
