The Medical Scientist Training Program

After earning a degree in physics from Harvard University, Brian was ready for the next step up, and explored options to combine his undergraduate degree with medicine.

“I like patient care and my ambition is to have a career that combines medicine and physics research,” Brian says. He is pursuing a medical degree and a Ph.D. in physics.

Relatively speaking, Brian explains that his combination of studies may not be that uncommon when it comes to pursuing two advanced degrees. However, what drew him to Arts & Sciences and Washington University was the ability to integrate the graduate and medical curricula, which is done through the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). The 2009-10 school year marks the 40th Anniversary of the MSTP at Washington University.

The MSTP is designed for students who want to combine M.D. and Ph.D. degrees, and also want to tailor them to their interests and career goals. MSTP students participate in both medical and graduate school programs. Generally, students attend two years of medical school classes, followed by several years of focusing on their Ph.D. project and dissertation, and then finish the program with two years of medical rotations.

“The freedom and flexibility to explore all of your opportunities is a strength of the program,” Brian says. “The Physics Department and Arts & Sciences were very accommodating and helped me tailor a program to help me meet my desires.”

Brian’s Ph.D. focus takes him to a lab where he does optical neuroimaging work. He is collaborating with several other students on an instrument that measures blood flow. A patient wears the instrument, which essentially is a “cap” with numerous optical fibers coming out of it. While wearing this “cap,” the patient is shown images on a computer screen, and the instruments in the cap measure blood flow in his or her brain. The amount and location of blood flow translates into what areas of the brain are activated in response to different visual stimuli.

“We’re still building the technology,” Brian explains, “we’ve developing the system and have programmed it.”

Although the idea of neuroimaging is old, the instrument on which Brian and his colleagues are working is new. It would provide a cheaper option to measure the blood flow and it also would be portable.

“Being portable is key,” he explains, “because you wouldn’t have to bring patients to the instrument. For example, if you have a baby in the NIC (neonatal intensive care) unit, you don’t want to take him out of there. So if you can bring the instrument to him, it’s much better. It’s great to be working on a project with such potential.”

Pairing students with opportunity and potential is what Arts & Sciences strives to do.
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