PROJECT SUMMARY The mission of our multi-institutional MSTP, comprised of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), and in conjunction with The University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus School of Medicine (UPR), is to pursue novel training of a diverse group of intellectually gifted students for careers as physician-scientists focused on disease-oriented research and bridging the knowledge gap between medicine and basic science. The MSTP has been continuously funded since 1982 and has graduated 136 students. To expand diversity in our physician-scientist trainees, we have partnered with the UPR, leveraging a NIH-funded MDACC/UPR U54 Partnership for Excellence in Cancer Research award to integrate into our MSTP those talented UPR medical students who want to pursue research careers, and approximately 34% of our program is underrepresented minorities (URM). Applications to our program from students from across the country have doubled over the past 10 years, allowing us to matriculate a group of highly qualified students (50 students currently in the program). To prepare physician-scientists to pursue disease-oriented research, a novel educational sequence was established to integrate the medical and graduate school. Although students begin to fulfill graduate school requirements from the very beginning of the program, they complete the clinical specialty rotations before pursuing dissertation research. Students can select from 9 graduate training programs in biomedical sciences. Support for this educational sequence is provided by the fact that, in the past 10 years, attrition from the program has been less than 4% and the time to completion is 7.8 years. Our students get extensive training in ethics of research and in rigor and reproducibility as well as how to work in a safe research environment. The quality of students and the program are exemplified by strong publication records and excellent residency matches. A major element to enhance training is the required Topics in Molecular Medicine course, which provides vertical integration and community for the students, exposure to the breadth and depth of research at the institutions, and insights into career development and leadership. Based on graduates over the past 15 years, the majority of our graduates who are out of training stayed in research-related careers (71%; academia, FDA, Biotech; n = 30). MSTP support is requested for a total of 6 matriculating students per year to expand the number of students in this unique and diverse training program.