The prestigious Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Stony Brook University’s Renaissance School of Medicine trains the next generation of physician scientists, and this past year received its largest-ever award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at $3.7 million for five years.
Students of the Medical Scientist Training Program.
The program has received funding from the NIH every year since 1992. The funding will allow the program to continue in its mission and expand in ways that will help evolve with the changing times.
Founded 40 years ago by Arnie Levine and Paul Fisher, the eight-year MD/PhD program selects just eight students every year out of an average applicant pool of around 300, with the steady-state size of the program at around 64 students. The program strives to have its student body represent the ethnic, racial, and gender diversity of the nation, with students coming from across the country, from colleges and universities large and small. The overarching commonalities of its matriculants are a demonstrated love of science, commitment to translational research as a career path, and an awareness of what being a health care professional entails.
Once the program is completed, graduates go on to tackle some of the most pressing medical issues of the day, with the majority of them going on to careers in top academic medical departments, the NIH, and, more recently, biotechnology companies.
Funding for the program supports trainee stipends, tuition, health insurance, and fees, and provides additional resources to enhance the training environment. The program is additionally supported in roughly equal amounts by the Renaissance School of Medicine, faculty mentors, and the students themselves, who have a fantastic success rate of almost 2/3’s in obtaining personal NIH fellowships to support their training on top of the parent grant.
Read the full story: https://news.stonybrook.edu/university/medical-scientist-training-program-mstp-trains-the-next-generation-of-physician-scientists/