# Comparative Medical Science Training Program

> **NIH NIH T32** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2020 · $281,926

## Abstract

Summary
This is a competitive renewal application for the Comparative Medical Science Training Program, a
post-doctoral training grant at the University of California, Davis, focused on veterinarians conducting
graduate training and research in comparative medicine. We propose to integrate this T-32, currently
in its 28th year, into a newly devised, comprehensive 4-year UC Davis Veterinary Graduate Research
Program, which aims to support eight DVMs/year in pursued of a PhD. Institutional commitment is
pledged to provide two students/year with a summer rotation program, in which they select a research
mentor from one of our 25 faculty trainers before entering graduate school, and a first year of support
upon entering graduate school and while the students are taking classes and preparing for their PhD
qualifying exam. Successful students would then receive one of six three-year T-32 fellowships in
support of their laboratory research in years two - four of their graduate career. Career guidance and
mentoring for writing fellowship, including K-awards, will be provided so that students are ready for
their next career step by the end of their three-year training period. Thus, this program seeks to
provide for the first time a comprehensive and seamless research-mentoring program for DVMs at UC
Davis to remove some of the barriers that exist, deterring some from pursing a research career. The
training program takes advantage of outstanding research and teaching opportunities in the biological
sciences on the Davis campus by bringing together on one campus faculty from the UC Davis School
of Veterinary Medicine, one of the leading veterinary schools in the world and the only such school in
the UC System, the School of Medicine, the College of Biological Sciences, and three centers: the
California National Primate Research Center, the Mouse Biology Program and the Center for
Comparative Medicine. Thus, this training grant aims to fill a critical and well recognized gap in
training of a diverse, clinically trained research workforce with expertise in comparative medicine and
animal modeling. Over the last funding period the training grant supported a total of 13 DVMs,
including 9 female and 4 male veterinarians, pursuing a PhD. Of those, 2 (15%) were from
backgrounds underrepresented in the STEM fields. Our goals for the next funding period are to build
on the long-term success of this program to broaden our applicant pool, to increase the numbers of
DVMs from other institutions, and to work with an increased number of UC Davis graduate programs
and the relevant Deans to device a more seamless graduate career paths for DMVs from all
backgrounds, so they may be further incentivized to contribute their unique knowledge and training as
collaborators and principal investigators in research that furthers human health.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9974355
- **Project number:** 5T32OD011147-32
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Nicole Baumgarth
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $281,926
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1988-07-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9974355

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9974355, Comparative Medical Science Training Program (5T32OD011147-32). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9974355. Licensed CC0.

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