Welcome to our website and thank you for your interest in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Emory University! 

We are dedicated to training exceptional students from a variety of disciplines who will become the next leaders in clinical academic medicine and biomedical research. The Emory MD/PhD Program combines the advantages of rigorous preparation in clinical medicine with interdisciplinary training in the basic and social sciences of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.  We recognize that a thriving, interdisciplinary physician-scientist training program is an integral and central component of the top academic medical centers; through this combined educational experience, the Emory MD/PhD Program provides the training necessary for students to work at the forefront of a scientific field while concurrently developing outstanding clinical skills. The purpose of such a training program is to optimally train physician-scientists for careers as leaders in both academic medicine and research in a way that will address future biomedical needs.

Emory University School of Medicine has been training physician-scientists since 1957.  In 1987, the Emory MD/PhD Program received NIH support in the form of a Medical Scientist Training Program institutional training grant that has received continuous funding since that time. Answering the call of the NIH, the fields of biomedical research and the University’s strategic aims, the program has grown incrementally since that time, and has over doubled under the exceptional leadership of several outstanding scientists at Emory, including Drs. Robert Gunn, Dale Edmondson, Allan Levey, Margaret Offermann and Marie Csete.  As a result, Emory has a unique and fertile training environment that boasts international recognition in clinical training and medicine combined with a huge expansion in first-rate biomedical research.

The Emory environment provides outstanding opportunities for integration of clinical training and biomedical research with several unique assets including the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a highly rated School of Public Health, and a joint department of biomedical engineering with Georgia Tech – all located on a central campus at Emory with diverse clinical facilities on the Clifton Road corridor. The Emory MSTP has over 300 current training faculty who embrace the training of physician-scientists in diverse approaches, with concurrent exposure to fundamental clinical issues relevant to the pathobiology of human disease.  We at Emory emphasize a mix of basic science, translational medicine, public health and engineering related issues, combining solid clinical exposure with training in scientific investigation to address disease-related issues.  Lastly, the MSTP program has encouraged trainees to pursue their research interests in association with both clinical and basic scientists.  Indeed, our trainees have come from many backgrounds and have gone on to world-renown residency programs to further their training as superior academic physicians with bright futures.

This type of success is achieved with a flexible training plan that integrates outstanding clinical training in the School of Medicine, with one of many possible interdisciplinary graduate training experiences in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.  The majority of Graduate School training in the biomedical sciences is within the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (GDBBS). There are also growing numbers of trainees in less traditional research disciplines for MD/PhD students, including Public Health, Chemistry, Physics, and Anthropology, all under the umbrella of the Emory the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In addition, our unique inter-institutional department of Biomedical Engineering between Emory and Georgia Tech has become a magnet for top trainees with its emergence as a leader in the country. Thus, there is a broad array of diverse graduate training opportunities available to MSTP students at Emory.  Upon graduation, as has been shown, students from this training program historically receive appointments to the nation's top residency training and post-doctoral training programs, generally receiving their first choice of appointments.

We believe that the Emory MD/PhD program offers a unique environment, very enthusiastic students and a tremendous combination of talented and diverse faculty.  Thank you for your interest, and please feel free to contact us at any time.

Sincerely,

Charles Parkos, MD, PhD, Director
Kerry Ressler, MD, PhD, Co-Director
Mary Horton, MPH, MA, Co-Director

The MD/PhD Program
Emory University School of Medicine
mdphd@emory.edu

Last updated Nov2008