Eight Years, One Vision: A Doctor-Scientist Who Will Bridge the Scientific and Clinical Worlds
From NIH-funded research on glioblastoma imaging to Match Day at Duke, Kaylie Cullison’s eight-year M.D./Ph.D. journey reflects the power of physician-scientists to bridge research and patient care.
Kaylie Cullison was 4 years old when she decided she wanted to be a doctor. She was born with a heart defect, which meant frequent check-ups and a childhood spent around physicians. She watched them work and knew it would be her path, too.
Nearly three decades later, Cullison is days away from collecting two degrees from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She’s earned an M.D. and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, capping an eight-year journey that encompassed a pandemic, a growing family, a federal research grant and a groundbreaking body of work in radiation oncology.
In the fall, she will start her internship year at the University of Miami/Jackson Health system. Then she will continue her residency training at Duke University Medical Center on a special physician-scientist training pathway, extending a research pursuit she believes could one day change how brain cancer is treated.
“For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a doctor,” said Cullison. “But then I fell in love with research. The M.D./Ph.D. was how I figured out I didn’t have to choose.”
Discovering Research at the NIH
Cullison grew up in Pittsburgh and studied biomedical engineering at George Washington University. During the summer between her junior and senior years, she landed a position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD., in a medical imaging lab.
That summer changed everything. She fell in love with research and discovered, for the first time, that combined M.D./Ph.D. programs existed. After two years doing full-time research at the NIH, she began her M.D./Ph.D. program at the Miller School of Medicine, pursing the same field — medical imaging — that had captivated her at the NIH. During her first year of medical school, radiation oncology proved to be the perfect clinical field to apply her research.
Using Imaging to Predict Brain Cancer Outcomes
For her dissertation, Cullison focused on glioblastoma, one of the deadliest and most treatment-resistant brain cancers known. Her work used predictive modeling to extract imaging markers from MRI scans that could forecast how individual patients would respond to therapy.
The premise, she explains, is that every tumor leaves a kind of imaging fingerprint not visible to the naked eye on scans but imbedded in mathematically extractable data that correlate with biological behavior and, ultimately, survival. By identifying those patterns computationally, clinicians could theoretically personalize treatment before it begins by intensifying radiation doses and initiating second-line therapies earlier for patients predicted to fare poorly. They could also spare other patients from unnecessary toxicity.
“The goal is to use the imaging fingerprint to analyze who is likely to have a favorable outcome,” Cullison said. “For those predicted to have worse outcomes, you intensify the therapy. For those likely to do well, maybe you can de-escalate and spare the healthy surrounding tissue.”
The Gap That Only a Clinician-Scientist Can See
M.D./Ph.D. programs were created, Cullison says, to solve the gap between what scientists discover and what actually reaches patients.
“Scientists are the backbone of medicine,” she said. “But Ph.D.s often work on niche, mechanistic questions, and basic science doesn’t always translate to the clinic. What physician-scientists offer is that we’re in the clinic every day. We see gaps in medical knowledge. We see where science is needed, right now. And then we take those problems back to the lab and try to solve them.”
That translational approach, moving between bedside observation and bench research, is the animating logic of Cullison’s career. It also explains why, unlike many M.D./Ph.D. graduates who move away from their dissertation work by the time they complete residency, she intends to stay the course.
“More often than not, M.D./Ph.D.s switch research topics or pivot to different fields of medicine as they progress in their careers and are exposed to different specialties later on in medical school training,” she acknowledged. “For me, I wound up going into the exact specialty I focused on during my Ph.D., and I want to continue that research. I found a mentor at Duke who does precisely the type of work I want to do.”
Life During an M.D./Ph.D. Program
Eight years is a long time. Cullison bought a house. She got married. She secured a competitive NIH F30 grant, a fellowship mechanism designed specifically for M.D./Ph.D. students that funded both her doctoral research and her return to clinical training.
And 14 months ago, in her third year of clinical rotations, she had a daughter.
Her graduating cohort of nine M.D./Ph.D. students, one of the largest classes in recent program history, have seven children among them. Cullison sees that as a signal, not a coincidence.
“The program and faculty are very supportive of us as individuals, not just as trainees,” she said.
Match Day, Twice Over
Cullison attended every Match Day ceremony during her eight years in the program. She watched classmate after classmate open envelopes. This spring, it was her turn.
Radiation oncology is among a handful of specialties that require a preliminary intern year before residency begins. That means at Match Day she learned she will spend next year at Jackson Memorial and train afterward at Duke.
“Somewhere in my motivation for not taking an extra year after my daughter was unexpectedly born two months premature was the thought of watching all my M.D./Ph.D. classmates match without me,” she admitted, laughing. “I would have been devastated. It was worth it when I got to open my envelope this spring. It all worked out.”
What Comes Next for Kaylie Cullison
Cullison’s longer-term ambition is to run a lab, while maintaining an active clinical practice treating patients. The dual role as a physician scientist is what M.D./Ph.D. programs are designed to produce, she says.
For Cullison, the work is personal, rooted in patients she has scanned, sat with and cared for, and in a question she first started asking in a lab in Bethesda.
“We have the skills to do both,” she said of physician-scientists. “For us, the question is always where can we improve medicine today?”
Tags: brain cancer, commencement, commencement 2026, Department of Medical Education, glioblastomas, medical education, Radiation oncology