MD/PhD and MSTP students

We host rotation students every year and I am always happy to take a thesis student.

This is a physician-scientist lab and the science is built for people who want to stay close to patients. Our projects run from mouse physiology to human samples to clinical trials, and a thesis here can sit anywhere along that line. Past students have worked on skeletal muscle imaging in lung cancer, dietary fructose and intestinal nutrient absorption, and body composition in patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy.

What I commit to. A thesis project scoped to finish in four years, not six. A first-author paper before you return to the wards, with the aim being submission by the end of year three. Support in writing an F30 or an institutional fellowship, with protected time to do it. A clear midpoint check on whether the project is converging, and a willingness to change course early rather than let a student sink years into something that is not working.

What I expect. That you rotate first. I do not take thesis students who have not spent time in the lab, and rotations are how both of us find out whether this is a fit. That you come with a question you find interesting rather than waiting to be assigned one. That you tell me early when something is not working.

Our MD/PhD alumni have gone on to residency and fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering, and several of our medical students and technicians have gone on to MD/PhD programs including Tri-Institutional, UT Southwestern, and Harvard.

To rotate or to discuss a thesis project, Email me directly with the subject line "MD/PhD rotation." Tell me what year you are in, what you have worked on before, and one thing from our work that you would want to push on. A paragraph is plenty. No formal application needed.

See also PhD students for our graduate program projects, and physician-scientist residents if you are already past medical school.