M.D./Ph.D. Program Awarded Prestigious NIH Grant

The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has been awarded an NIH Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) grant from the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences for its M.D./Ph.D. Program, joining an elite group of 47 medical schools throughout the U.S. The $1.3 million five-year grant provides support for the training of students pursuing both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in an integrated program that develops scientifically trained physicians.

From left, Alessia Fornoni, M.D., Ph.D., with Sandra Lemmon, Ph.D.

Achieving the designation as an NIH-supported MSTP will allow the Miller School to expand the M.D./Ph.D. Program size, enhance recruitment, and provide new professional development opportunities, according to the program’s director, Sandra Lemmon, Ph.D., professor of molecular and cellular pharmacology, and associate director, Alessia Fornoni, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, chief of the Katz Family Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, and director of the Peggy and Harold Katz Family Drug Discovery Center.

“The designation has been a longstanding goal for our program, and it is wonderful to see all of our hard work bring the MSTP to fruition,” said Lemmon. “Importantly, we could not have achieved this milestone without the generous support of the medical school.”

NIH MSTP T32 grants have been in existence for more than 50 years, and today nearly all of the top-funded medical schools in the country have awards that support approximately 900 trainees nationally.

“This is a wonderful accomplishment and recognition of the quality and high impact of research at the Miller School of Medicine, as well as the outstanding environment for training future physician-scientists,” said Edward Abraham, M.D., Dean and Chief Academic Officer of the Miller School of Medicine. “The receipt of this award is a transformative moment for our institution.”

The Miller School has a long tradition of physician-scientist training. Students select from 10 Ph.D. training programs in the biomedical sciences, including traditional basic sciences, cancer biology, human genetics and genomics, and neuroscience programs, as well as epidemiology in the public health sciences and biomedical engineering.

With the MSTP grant, the Miller School is better positioned than ever to foster the growth of M.D./Ph.D. students into physician-scientists who can improve health through research and provide future intellectual leadership in medicine.

Tags: Alessia Fornoni, M.D./Ph.D. program, Medical Scientist Training Program, Miller School of Medicine, National Institutes of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Sandra Lemmon, University of Miami