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Vol. 38, No. 18 |
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3-17-2004 Integration vital to biomedical science programStudents interested in biomedical research need not attend medical school to become prepared for a rewarding career. Ohio State’s Integrated Biomedical Science Graduate Program (IBGP) offers an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to investigating the causes, biological mechanisms, diagnosis and cures of human diseases. Allan Yates, professor and director of the IBGP since its inception in 2000, said the program is designed for those students who want to become scientists and investigators, but not necessarily practitioners. “Some students go into the pre-professional program because of their interest in biology, and think they’ll go to medical school and become researchers,” Yates said. “But as they move along the curriculum, they realize there is not only patient management but also medical science investigation, which they discover because of a project or lab course. They then realize they aren’t as interested in patient management as they are in studying human disease or biology, and become involved in investigation.” Yates said the impetus for the program at Ohio State occurred back in the 1990s, with the realization that the traditionally departmentalized and single-disciplined programs were not preparing students for careers in biomedical research where the understanding of disease mechanisms required interaction among multiple disciplines. Housed in the School of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Medicine and Public Health (CoMPH), the program pulls together the resources of graduate education from all departments in the college to prepare students for research careers that are increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative. Most will probably take additional postgraduate training before entering the job market as independent investigators and/or educators in the rapidly expanding area of biomedical science, Yates said. The program’s inaugural class in June 2001 began with 23 students. Today, 80 benefit from the expertise of the more than 180 faculty from the 19 departments in CoMPH. The program culminates in a Ph.D with an emphasis on the biology of human diseases, or an M.D./Ph.D through the school’s Medical Scientist Program. Students pursuing the Ph.D take their candidacy exam at the end of their second year, and are expected to complete their dissertation within five years. For those pursuing the M.D./Ph.D., the doctorate is usually in a biomedical-related field. Most students choose one of 10 areas of research emphasis in the IBGP, or the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program (BME), which has a different sequence. “The challenge is that students interested in the M.D./Ph.D program through the Medical Scientist Program must apply to and be accepted not only by the IBGP (or the BME) and the Graduate School, but by the Medical School,” Yates said, adding that it is a very competitive program. “In fact, because students receive a tuition waiver and a stipend, the program can only accept five students each year.” Yates stressed that the IBGP was not the result of simply merging a number of pre-existing graduate programs or the bundling of freestanding courses into a single curriculum. “You have to train students to think in a more holistic, integrated fashion,” Yates said. “The only way to do this is to take the curriculum from the beginning and put it together in a way that will present information in such a manner that the students understand it in terms of how the various aspects interact.” The theme of the IBGP, “The Biology of Human Disease,” is reflected in the topics that are threaded through the core curriculum, culminating in an understanding of the complex interactions of the mechanisms at different levels of an organism that lead to the expression of human diseases. “The focus is more on how all these disciplines — biochemistry, molecular biology, physiology, and cell, tissue and organ biology, for instance — come together to lead to the understanding of how a certain bit of biology functions or doesn’t function in the disease state,” said James Van Brocklyn, assistant professor of pathology. “It is important for students to understand the biological concepts behind disease at a variety of levels so that they can design research projects that lead to a better understanding of the disease as a whole and can realize how important it is to develop good collaborations.” Students begin the program summer quarter after receiving their baccalaureate degree with “Research Techniques and Resources,” which covers key research skills that will prove invaluable to the students during the course of their studies — a component not commonly offered in Ph.D. programs, according to Van Brocklyn, who directs the course. “We feel it is useful for them to have a basic concept and a small amount of hands-on experience with a broad array of techniques right from the start,” he said. “Many students have some lab experience with certain types of techniques but not with all the procedures we cover, so by the end of our course they have a broader range of experience to bring with them into their lab rotations.” The main course, “The Biology of Human Disease,” extends over three academic quarters, and covers human biology from the most basic molecular level to an integrative systems approach. Shorter courses cover biomedical research ethics, animal models of human diseases, bioinformatics and research problem solving. Laboratory research experiences also begin that first quarter. The IBGP has 10 areas of research emphasis that carry transcript designations: cell, organ systems and integrative biology; molecular virology and gene therapy; biology of neurological disorders; genetics; biochemical and molecular basis of disease; biomedical informatics; immunology; microbial pathogenesis; molecular pharmacology, pharmacogenomics and therapeutics; and oral pathophysiology. Yates said students are strongly encouraged to rotate through at least Three courses on grant writing are offered during the second year. Students write a small NIH grant as if they were requesting funding for their dissertation research. “This exercise gets students used to the idea that proposed research has to be funded, and requires them to have their aims, rationale, background, time frames, budget and administrative aspects aligned, which gives them a taste of everything they’ll need to consider for their work in the future,” Yates said. After a critique by a mock review panel composed of students, the grant draft becomes a written document and defending piece for their candidacy exam to graduate school. “Learning about grants, writing them, comprehending the statistical aspects and defending their research through the peer-review process gets them used to explaining their research to people who are not experts in their disciplines,” he added. Course work is supplemented throughout the program with advanced research seminars presented by students, faculty and international experts from other centers and universities, allowing students to further develop skills essential for effective scientific presentations. Students also can take additional graduate courses — offered by any area at Ohio State — to gain deeper understanding of selected areas. “What distinguishes us is that our main focus is the investigation of human disease, and we’re the only program in the university that does this,” Yates said. “We’re based in CoMPH, so we have the resources — the hospital and related clinical areas and departments doing research — that students can work in. It makes for a good environment to learn basic science and research within a large system that is dealing with and focused on it.” For more information on the IBGP, visit www.ibgp.org.
3rd Annual OSUMC Graduate and Postgraduate Research Day • See more than 190 research projects • Hear presentations from three world-renowned researchers • Chat with student researchers about their contributions to Medical Center research Download a PDF with details by visiting http://2MD.osu.edu clients/biomedicalsciences/images/flyer.jpg
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