Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) - Enter the text here that is the new abstract information for your application. This section must be no longer than 30 lines of text. The Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) in the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University (MSU-COM) will provide high quality, effective and innovative graduate and medical training to prepare osteopathic physician scientists who lead the profession and promote the health of the communities in which they serve. More broadly, the MSTP at MSU-COM will begin to address long standing needs of the osteopathic profession to increase its overall research and scholarly outputs. Importantly, the DO-PhD program fully funds all students (covers all tuition, fees and healthcare as well as stipend) to recruit and retain qualified and accomplished students. In addition, the proposed program capitalizes on the unique attributes and capacities inherent to the current DO school curriculum, while including a bootcamp and longitudinal check-ins to enhance and ensure peak learning for students throughout their training. Coursework, seminars and research training will emphasize translational research in conjunction with quantitative training in biostatistical and computational approaches. The dual degree training path is innovatively designed to maximize integration of scientific and medical training. The MSTP at MSU will also continue to capitalize on the historic support of the DO-PhD program by the College of Osteopathic Medicine, and by the strength of MSU as a TOP 100 research university. The Participating Training Faculty are drawn from multiple disciplines (11 PhD programs) to attract a broad range of student research interests, and the faculty share critical qualities of productivity and strong evidence of successful graduate mentoring, especially of DO-PhD students. Program-specific training and developmental activities will also bring MSTP students together on a regular basis throughout their training to build strong alliances and community. Developmental activities will include training opportunities in scientific communication, grant writing and career development. These enrichments, coupled with inputs and ongoing evaluation by internal and external advisors, will assure program goals will be met. As a leadership opportunity, MSTP students will host and engage with nationally-recognized physician scientists, as part of the larger MSU-COM Research Day and the student-led seminar series. Students will be supported for two years by this program, and support is requested for three trainees in the first year of MSTP funding, and four for years 2 to 5, to expand our program to a total of 45 trainees.
