The
M.D./Ph.D. Program at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio ranked fifth out of 113 programs nationwide that reported training
M.D./Ph.D. students during the 2015-2016 academic year, the program’s director
announced.

The
ranking is based on the percentage of students supported by highly competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH) F30 fellowships during academic year 2015-2016,
said Program Director Dr. JosA© E. Cavazos. Dr. Cavazos is assistant
dean of the School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
at the Health Science Center.

Of
145 schools of medicine across the country, 113 enrolled M.D./Ph.D. students in
their programs. Students in 73 programs received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA) for Individual
Predoctoral MD/PhD Fellows (F30 awards) from the NIH during the
academic year of 2015-2016.

Seven
out of the 34 students in the M.D./Ph.D. Program at the School of Medicine earned
NRSA F30 Awards. Each benefited from a workshop coordinated by Linda McManus,
Ph.D., director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. The F30 award recipients
during 2015-2016 were:

Curtis Clark
Jeffrey Cooney
Vinh Anh Dao, Ph.D. (received Ph.D. in May 2015)
Elena V. Daoud, M.D., Ph.D. (completed the program in May 2016)
Kathryn Hinchee-Rodriguez
Brett Ipson
David Melton, Ph.D. (received Ph.D. in May 2016)

An
eighth M.D./Ph.D. student—Tiffani Houston—has a fellowship from NIH called the
F31 Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award.

According
to the NIH, participating institutes award the fellowships to qualified
applicants who have the potential to become productive, independent, highly
trained physician-scientists and other clinician-scientists, including
patient-oriented researchers in their scientific mission areas. These future
investigators will have both clinical knowledge and skills in basic,
translational or clinical research.

Students
admitted into the M.D./Ph.D. Program are fully supported for the duration of
their training, typically eight years.

“NIH
fellowships enable us to recruit more M.D./Ph.D. students who will be the next
generation of clinician scientists solving conundrums of human disease,” said
Francisco GonzA¡lez-Scarano, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine and executive
vice president for medical affairs at the Health Science Center.

The
M.D./Ph.D. Program receives funding from the Health Science Center President’s Office, the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and
several endowments at the Health Science Center, including the Joe R. and
Teresa Lozano Long Endowment, the Brackenridge Foundation Endowment, the
Greehey Family Foundation Endowment and the Harry F. Adler, M.D., Ph.D.,
Endowment.

Applications
for enrollment in June 2017 are being accepted for the program through the AMCAS national application system, Dr. Cavazos said. Interested individuals may
view a video about the M.D./Ph.D. Program at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

For more information
about the M.D./Ph.D. Program, visit http://som.uthscsa.edu/mdphd/.