# Medical Scientist Training Program

> **NIH NIH T32** · STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK STONY BROOK · 2021 · $860,206

## Abstract

This application requests continued support for the tri-institutional Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at
Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Continuously
supported by the NIGMS since 1992, our MSTP has almost a 40-year history of training physician-scientists,
many of whom have gone on to make important discoveries and become leaders in biomedical research at
academic medical centers across the country. Of our 111 graduates thus far, 43% are still in training, all in strong
academic medical programs. Of the remaining graduates, 71% have academic faculty positions, many of which
are highly prestigious, or are affiliated with university hospitals, NIH, or biotechnology / pharmaceutical groups,
and another 11% are primarily clinical but contribute as educators and have academic connections. The goal of
the program is to provide a rigorous training path that creates and fosters a physician-scientist mentality and a
culture that imbues trainees with the tools, motivation, identity, and drive to pursue careers in academic medicine.
Students are exposed to both clinical and basic scientific activities throughout their training, reinforcing the
special nature of this program. Core courses unique to our MSTP include monthly seminar / dinners with both
internal and external physician-scientist speakers, and a monthly journal club – clinical pathological correlation
dinner-evening that combines basic science with clinical applications in an active-learning manner. Our students
participate in mini-courses in our unique Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. PhD degrees are offered
in a wide range of disciplines with the students being guided to undertake high-quality basic / translational
science training to address problems relevant to human health. Since the last review, there have been many
changes at SBU including (i) the recruitment of new MD and MD-PhD physician-scientists as Chairs of the major
clinical departments and (iv) a $450M construction of a Cancer Center and Children’s Hospital. The MSTP has
grown from 40 students 10 years ago to 58 at the last renewal and now 63, annual institutional support to the
MSTP has correspondingly increased, the applicant pool size has remained stable, and both applicant and
matriculant quality have increased substantially. In 2017/18, we matriculated 7 students (and we typically add
another student from the existing medical school class). Many of our students hold individual NRSAs, publish
high-impact articles, and have received a variety of honors, both intra- and extramurally. Overall time-to-
graduation has averaged 8.05 years over the past decade. On average, MSTPs receive support for 25% of the
funding years; in this application, we thus request that level of support, i.e. 16 lines. We are committed to the
training of exceptional physician-scientists, which renewed funding will greatly facilitate.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10200073
- **Project number:** 5T32GM008444-30
- **Recipient organization:** STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK STONY BROOK
- **Principal Investigator:** Michael A. Frohman
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $860,206
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1992-07-01 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10200073

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10200073, Medical Scientist Training Program (5T32GM008444-30). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10200073. Licensed CC0.

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