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 scientists. The SBMS provides a mentored, academic-year-long, research training program for Ph.D. candidates at their second and third years. In the last four years, the program has trained 20 students with support from the School of Medicine, the Graduate School and the Office of the Provost. Students are exposed to the vast array of medical research opportunities available to physicians at our large medical school campus. They undertake basic, translational, or clinical research projects under the supervision of a clinical faculty mentor representing any of the clinical disciplines. 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 pathobiology, and clinical trials setup with an emphasis on the ethical and responsible conduct of clinical research, and (6) Prepare the basic science graduate students to act as liaisons between basic and clinical science. This new T32 application features a diverse group of faculty who are experienced in the pursuit of basic, translational and clinical biomedical research and are committed to enhancing the scientific training experience of our outstanding students.