# UAB Short-Term Research Training in Health Professional Schools (SHRT)

> **NIH NIH T35** · UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM · 2024 · $224,490

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders continue to have a major impact on global health. Physician scientists
have an important role in addressing these disorders through research whose findings can advance development
of new diagnostic, treatment, and prevention strategies. However, there is a decreasing number of physician
scientists in these clinical fields to meet this need. Strategies to recruit, train, and retain the next generation of
physician scientists to address heart, lung, and blood concerns are needed. The University of Alabama at
Birmingham (UAB) is committed to training and retaining a pipeline of physician scientists and has established
a Physician Scientist Development Office (PSDO) that provides support and resources for this pipeline, which
includes medical students. UAB’s 41-year long NHLBI T35-funded program has been highly successful in
providing mentored research and training for medical students. The goal of this renewal submission is to
continue to provide medical students with mentored research experiences concentrated in heart, lung, and/or
blood fields and didactics that provide skills and knowledge in translational research and motivation for a career
as a physician scientist. This goal will be achieved through three specific aims: Aim 1: Continue to identify and
recruit medical students interested in translational-based heart, lung and/or blood research who are diverse by
gender, race, and ethnicity. This will be achieved through multiple PSDO-led and co-sponsored activities held in
the first year of medical school (MS1). Aim 2: Continue to provide research experiences, mentoring, and
research training for medical students to promote curiosity in and motivation for a career involving heart, lung
and/or blood research. Each summer, 32 medical students will complete an 8-week program that includes: 1)
research experiences in heart, lung, and/or blood fields; 2) mentoring by preceptors with an excellent mentoring
track record; 3) translational research training and responsible conduct of research and reproducibility training;
4) other career development activities; and 5) career guidance through interactions with preceptors, the program
director (PD), peers and near pears. Aim 3: Maintain continued mentorship and engagement in career
development and research-related activities to retain medical students’ interest in and motivation for a physician
scientist pathway involving heart, lung, and/or blood research. As seen in program outcome data in this renewal
application, the program is very successful, with an increase in: 1) program applications (71% increase since
2014), 2) female and URiM participants (38% increase in females; 58% increase in URiMs), 3) longitudinal
research pathway participation (28% rise in year-out research programs); also, there are many publications (for
a short-term research experience) and many students continuing in academic medicine post-graduation. The
program remai...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10767696
- **Project number:** 2T35HL007473-41
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM
- **Principal Investigator:** WILLIAM M GEISLER
- **Activity code:** T35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $224,490
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 1991-05-01 → 2029-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10767696

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10767696, UAB Short-Term Research Training in Health Professional Schools (SHRT) (2T35HL007473-41). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10767696. Licensed CC0.

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