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Howard Hughes Grant Connects Ph.D. Students to Medical Applications
Biomedical Graduate Students at MSM, Emory and Georgia Tech Will Benefit from HHMI “Med into Grad” Initiative
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Cherie A. Richardson / 404-752-1917 / crichardson@msm.edu
MSM in partnership with Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology were selected by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to receive a four-year, $700,000 "Med into Grad" grant to bring clinical medicine into the graduate school curriculum.
In the HHMI program, which includes a total of 23 schools, MSM, Emory and Georgia Tech will provide Ph.D. graduate student researchers training that can help them identify pressing medical problems and develop treatments for human disease.
"This grant represents another important outgrowth of Morehouse School of Medicine's partnership with Emory University and Georgia Tech in the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSA)," said Douglas Paulsen, Ph.D., MSM associate dean for Graduate Studies. "It not only provides financial support for MSM's Ph.D. students to pursue additional training in clinical and translational science, but expands the scope of the experiences and mentorship available to them beyond the walls of MSM. We expect the outcome to be MSM Ph.D. graduates better qualified to collaborate with, and lead, the interdisciplinary teams of basic and clinical scientists needed to translate laboratory discoveries into improved healthcare for everyone."
Through the Med into Grad program, MSM, Emory and Georgia Tech will provide translational research training to biomedical science and engineering graduate students. The program will focus on ways in which the basic sciences can contribute to better medical treatments or diagnostics and will help develop a group of Ph.D. prepared scientists who can translate fundamental discoveries to benefit human health.
"Until recently, Ph.D. students in the biomedical sciences at our three schools have had limited opportunities for training in translational or more clinically focused research," says Henry Blumberg, M.D., who will lead the Emory program. "In a recent survey of our science graduate students, 85 percent reported they wanted more of this kind of training."
The HHMI-sponsored program will provide outstanding opportunities for clinical and translational research training, including an Advanced Certificate Program in Translational Research, multidisciplinary mentoring teams for Ph.D. graduate students, and an introduction and immersion in clinical medicine and sites of clinical and translational research throughout Atlanta.
The Med into Grad program will be available to Ph.D. students in MSM's Graduate Education in Biomedical Sciences Program and those enrolled in the eight programs of Emory's Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Emory's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory, the Georgia Tech Bioengineering Program. The first students will be enrolled in Fall 2010.
HHMI began the Med into Grad Initiative in 2005 as an experiment to increase the number of scientists able to conduct translational research, turning basic science discoveries into improved treatments for patients. Med into Grad students collaborate with physician-scientists, choose medically relevant thesis topics and publish work in medical journals.
For more information about the Med into Grad Initiative and a list of participating institutions, see http://www.hhmi.org/news/medintograd20091117.html.
Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), located in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in 1975 as the Medical Education Program at Morehouse College. In 1981 Morehouse School of Medicine became an independently chartered institution and the first minority medical school established at a Historically Black College and University in the 20th century. MSM is among the nation's leading educators of primary care physicians. Our faculty and alumni are noted in their fields for excellence in teaching, research and public policy, and are known in the community for exceptional, culturally appropriate patient care. For more information about Morehouse School of Medicine, visit us online at www.msm.edu.
