The Indiana Medical Scientist Coaching Program (MSTP) has acquired $4.6 million in renewed grant funding from the Nationwide Institute of Basic Medical Sciences of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH) to maintain and increase its efforts all through the subsequent 5 years. A three way partnership between Indiana College Faculty of Drugs and the Weldon Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue College, this system seeks to fulfill the rising want for extra physician-scientists and physician-engineers in well being care.

“There’s a urgent want for extremely expert and various specialists who can bridge the hole between scientific discovery and scientific observe,” mentioned Benjamin Gaston, MD, Billie Lou Wooden Professor of Pediatrics at IU Faculty of Drugs and co-director of the Indiana Medical Scientist Coaching Program. “We’re grateful for the NIH’s continued funding within the Indiana Medical Scientist Coaching Program which permits us to equip extra trainees with the abilities and information wanted to handle essential challenges in affected person care.”

The Medical Scientist Coaching Program goals to recruit gifted college students, present a complete coaching curriculum, and produce graduates with twin MD/PhD levels who’re ready for important positions in tutorial medical facilities.

“Renewed funding from the NIH not solely reaffirms this system’s excellence but in addition reinforces IU Faculty of Drugs’s dedication to welcoming extra various college students devoted to advancing medication and analysis,” mentioned Brittney-Shea Herbert, PhD, assistant dean for doctor scientist growth at IU Faculty of Drugs and co-director of the Indiana Medical Scientist Coaching Program. “We stay up for increasing this system’s impression.”

There are at the moment 70 college students within the Medical Scientist Coaching Program pursuing a variety of medical analysis research at labs in Indianapolis and West Lafayette. These college students work intently with 107 coaching college from IU Faculty of Drugs and the Weldon Faculty of Biomedical Engineering who mentor trainees in eight areas of analysis excellence. The grant renewal helps the admission of as much as 16 new college students into this system every year-;essentially the most because the program was established 15 years in the past.