The Yale Medical Research Scholars Program

Predoctoral Training at the Interface of Biology and Medicine

• Program Eligibility
• Curriculum
• Program Leadership
• Student Selection Process

The Medical Research Scholars Program (MRSP) at Yale University bridges barriers between traditional predoctoral and medical training by providing Yale Ph.D. students with both medically oriented coursework and a mentored clinical experience. The coursework provides a grounding in biomedicine, and the clinical experience enables students to interact with patients to learn firsthand about disease symptoms, treatment options, and the limitations of current therapies. This combination of medical knowledge and face-to-face interaction with patients and their doctors provides a new perspective to Ph.D. students and enhances the rigorous training in basic science already provided within the Yale Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) Program. Upon completion of their training, MRSP graduates will be capable of working much more closely with physicians and physician-scientists and to independently perform clinically relevant basic research. Funding for the MRSP is provided in large part from a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute via their Med Into Grad Initiative

Program Eligibility

The MRSP is open only to students who have already been accepted into the BBS Program, and an application is required (see above). A total of eight students each year (four first-years and four second-years) will be enrolled as Medical Research Scholars. They will remain in their BBS Tracks or Departments but will participate in the additional MRSP curriculum.

The Curriculum

The MRSP consists of four classroom courses that focus first on normal human physiology and organ-based cell biology, followed by human pathobiology and then an introduction to drug discovery, validation and clinical trials (see table below). These classes will also be open to all BBS students, at the discretion of the course directors. The centerpiece of the MRSP is a two-year Mentored Clinical Experience that runs concurrently with the classroom courses and will provide students with patient contact. Exposure to patients and to the practice of medicine will enable graduate students to work more confidently at the interface of research and medicine and facilitate future collaborations with clinical researchers. The Mentored Clinical Experience is open only to students formally enrolled as Medical Research Scholars.

MRSP Curriculum Descriptions

Comprehensive descriptions of the above courses are available in Word by ing here .

"The MRSP is a motivating and intellectually stimulating program that has given me the resources necessary to direct my research towards clinical applications. The clinically oriented classes that I have taken have helped me build a strong foundation in understanding disease mechanisms as well as disease pathology. Moreover, the MRSP offers a mentored clinical experience that allows me to nteract with physicians and patients to better understand disease processes and the struggles that patients are faced with. For me, the interaction with patients is not only inspirational, but it also influences the research that I conduct and allows me to keep the big picture of my research in mind. Having first hand insight into diseases I have learned about has enabled me to come up with ideas for my research that are difficult to find at the bench­—making it possible for me to work towards helping patients like those that I have met through the MRSP." 
Michelle Mo
Medical Research Scholars Program
Pharmacological Sciences and Molecular Medicine Track

Program Leadership

Lynn Cooley, Ph.D. is the MRSP Director and is also the Director of the BBS Program. Michael Caplan, M.D./Ph.D and Raymond Russell, M.D./Ph.D. serve as Co-Directors of the MRSP. The administrative liaison for the MRSP is Bonnie Ellis, Student Services Officer for the BBS Program. The MRSP also has a core leadership team that includes the above individuals and John Alvaro, Emile Boulpaep, Carl Hashimoto, Karen Anderson, David Stern.

Student Selection Process

Four new MRSP students will be selected from among the entire incoming BBS class before they arrive on campus, and they will participate in the Program during their first two years of graduate study.

The application deadline will be in May of 2010, and the form should be emailed to Bonnie Ellis. The MRSP application, along with the student’s Application for Admission to the Yale Graduate School, which was submitted for entry into the BBS Program, will be reviewed by members of the MRSP core leadership team. Selection will be based largely on the applicant’s responses on the MRSP application as well as on the applicant’s potential for successfully handling the demands of the MRSP curriculum on top of their regular BBS Track coursework and lab rotations. If necessary, students may be interviewed.