Scholars in BioMedical Sciences (SBMS) Training Program

Abstract We are requesting support for the Scholars in BioMedical Sciences (SBMS) Program. This training program is crucial to introduce graduate students to the concepts of medical research and to spawn a new generation of translational science-minded and trained scientists. The SBMS provides a mentored research training program for Ph.D. candidates at their second and third years. In the last ten years, the program has trained 41 students with support from the NIH (T32), the School of Medicine, the Graduate School and the Office of the Provost, while 21 students are still in training. Students are exposed to the vast array of medical research opportunities available to physicians at our large medical school campus. They take coursework in human pathobiology, clinical trials, data analysis and clinical research ethics, and engage in basic, translational, or clinical research projects under the supervision of a clinical faculty mentor representing any of the clinical disciplines. The students are financially supported by the program for one year. The goals of the SBMS are to: (1) Expose basic science students to high quality and intensive clinical medicine research opportunities; (2) Provide graduate basic science students with an understanding of the method and critical analysis of clinical, patient- oriented research; (3) Promote research experiences that can develop into longer-term student-faculty mentoring relationships; (4) Provide trainees with experience in scientific presentation in the Annual SBMS Symposium, and other scientific meetings at a regional or national level; (5) Provide students with a high quality didactic program in ethical, responsible, rigorous and well controlled human patient research, (6) Prepare the basic science graduate students to act as liaisons between basic and clinical science and (7) Prepare the students for a career at work at the interface of basic biomedical science and clinical research. This T32 application requests support for 6 students/year to be appointed for one year. It features a diverse group of faculty who are experienced in the pursuit of basic, translational and clinical biomedical research and committed to enhancing the experience of our outstanding basic science students and mentoring a new cohort of translational medicine-trained investigators.