# Medical Scientist Training Program

> **NIH NIH T32** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON · 2020 · $178,282

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The mission of our multi-institutional MD/PhD Program, comprised of the University of Texas Health Science
Center at Houston McGovern Medical School (UTHealth) and 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 MD/PhD program has been continuously funded since 1982 and has graduated 105 students, including a
current Director of our program. 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 MD/PhD Program those talented UPR medical students who want to pursue research
careers, and approximately 30% 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 (51 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 4% and the time to
completion is 7.8 years. 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 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 post-training trainees are in academic positions or industry (76%; n = 38;
28 academic positions + 1 in industry). MSTP support is requested for a total of 6 matriculating students per
year by year 3 of the training grant period, to expand the number of students in this unique and diverse training
program.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9924573
- **Project number:** 5T32GM129462-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON
- **Principal Investigator:** DIANNA M MILEWICZ
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $178,282
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9924573

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9924573, Medical Scientist Training Program (5T32GM129462-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9924573. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*