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'Bridge to research' takes different track
By Ruth SoRelle, MPH

Benjamin Fox

Since July, Benjamin Fox, a third-year medical student at Baylor College of Medicine, has reported to the laboratory of Stephen Davies instead of to a clinical rotation. He will continue to do so until he has completed a year in the laboratory.

Fox, like five other members of his class, has decided to take a different route to obtaining a medical degree. Instead of four years, he will take five years to complete his education. He will spend one year in the laboratory as part of Baylor Medical School Research Track program that began a year ago.

The decision to stay in school an extra year was not an easy one for Fox, married and the father of two little girls. "I wanted to get a feel for research," said Fox, who graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, with a degree in classic languages - Greek and Latin. Those were not scientific majors, and he wanted to get a better feel for how research was done.

The MSRT is "a bridge to research" that requires less time in the laboratory than the traditional MD/PhD approach. Led by Brendan Lee, MD, PhD, an associate professor in the department of molecular and human genetics, and Scott Basinger, PhD, an assistant dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the program began three years ago at a time when the college was trying to respond to the critical need for physician scientists.

"The first goal of the program is to make better physicians," said Lee. Second is to attract and identify a cohort of medical students who want to know more about research. "Students can go through medical school, residency and a fellowship and never be exposed to research," he said.

"That's the idea of the program, to expose them to research early on and then let them know how they want to plan the next 10 years of their lives," he said.

A third goal is to improve the placement of students in their residencies after medical school, he said.

The program has attracted different types of students, he said. One type is the student who has already done a lot of research. Another kind wants to understand academic medicine better. The third is the type of student who doesn't know much about research and wants to learn more.

Most students do their research between the second and third years of medical school, although it is possible to take the research year between the third and fourth years, he said.

The program actually begins in the first year when students receive a message about the program and an invitation to participate. In the first year, those who sign up attend biweekly seminars at which potential research mentors discuss their work. "This exposes them to the research that is going on at Baylor," said Lee.

In the middle of their second year, students are matched to mentors and departments. At that time, they begin to prepare applications for Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowships.

"The key is to get a great research experience," said Lee. However, the support of the school and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute has been key to making this year possible for the students.

For example, four of the six students currently participating in the research track received Howard Hughes fellowships. Two were also selected as Academy of Achievement Honor students.

The college and its board have waived tuition for the year that the students are in their research track. During their research year, they receive a $20,000 stipend plus benefits. Departments also have committed to supporting researchers. Others can be funded through awards for minority students.

Basinger, the administrative head of the program, credits Rebecca Kirkland, MD, senior associate dean of education, and the late Claire Huckins, also a senior associate dean, with speeding approval of the program through the curriculum committee.

With a looming lack of physician scientists, Basinger thinks the program is a good compromise that exposes medical students to the world of research and with luck, will draw some of them into the research community - whether at the lab bench or working with patients.

It is a rigorous program but compressed into a year. "It is in no way research-lite," he said.

Roger Nicome, left, is pictured with his mentor, John A. Vanchiere, MD, PhD, a pediatric infectious diseases fellow with the Bayor international Pediatrics AIDS Initiative.

The research year immerses students in the real research life, said Lee. They attend laboratory meetings, grand rounds and conferences. During that year, they attend courses called Fundamentals of Clinical Investigation sponsored by the Clinical Scientist Training Program and a module of independent problem solving organized by Henry Epstein, M.D., in the research arena.

After their year, they are expected to present their work, although that often occurs in the third or fourth year. They will also write their results and seek to get them published.

"This is an apprenticeship," said Lee. "We have to have motivated students."

He hopes that students will be exposed to both clinical and basic research. For half a day a week, the students are exposed to a clinical setting with patients, he said. "We want to teach them what grows from the research environment," he said.

Roger Nicome hopes that the work he is doing in the laboratory of Janet Butel, PhD, chairman of the molecular virology and microbiology department, will some day help children born with a rare kidney disease.

He sought to participate in the MSRT program because he wanted to get a feel for research that he had not had previously.

Dona Kim Murphey

"I like the research I'm doing," he said. In the long term, he would like to do pediatric HIV work.

Dona Kim Murphey is in the middle of her first year, but already she is attending workshops that will prepare her for the research track.

"This gives me an opportunity to do something different in medical school," she said. "I definitely want to be a clinician, but it is important to have a background in basic science.

She knows she has extended her time in medical school, but she thinks it is worth it.

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