RSOM’s MD/PhD Program Receives New Five-Year Grant from the NIH

The Medical Science Training Program (MSTP) in the Renaissance School of Medicine (RSOM) at Stony Brook University has received a five-year $5.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue training future physician scientists. The funding runs through June 30, 2030.

The MSTP was developed by the NIH decades ago to encourage students with a passion for scientific discovery that leads to improved clinical care to be able to pursue this career path without being deterred by the high level of debt that most medical students acquire during their education. NIH funding for the program covers tuition and health insurance and provides a modest stipend.

The RSOM's MSTP provides medical students with integrated translational science and clinical training that leads to both MD and PhD degrees at graduation. It has been continually funded by the NIH since 1992 and has steadily grown over the last 44 years.

Funding for the MSTP is also provided by the RSOM, the trainees' PhD mentors, and individual fellowships that the trainees obtain from the NIH and private foundations.

"The landscape for training students to become the next-generation's physician-scientists is ever evolving and the program maximizes their education and capabilities during this period of accelerated discovery," said Michael Frohman, MD, Distinguished SUNY Professor, chair of the Department of Pharmacological Sciences and director of MSTP for the last 22 years. "The key driving force is to instill in them the importance of being able to identify unmet clinical needs and translate research findings based on them into improved medical practice."

Frohman added that students who complete the MSTP, which generally takes eight years, enter their residency training as excellent young clinicians who have the ability to conduct bedside to bench to bedside research. Graduates of the RSOM's MSTP - about 150 thus far - go on to tackle some of our most pressing medical issues in careers at leading academic medical centers, federal health agencies, and increasingly in recent years, biotechnology companies.

Currently, there are about 75 students enrolled in the MSTP, with the new and increased funding from the NIH grant allowing 9 students to be recruited into the program each year.

The previous NIH grant to support the program, issued in 2020, totaled $3.7 million in funding over the past five years.