
The Medical Scientist Training Program at Baylor College of Medicine is designed for highly motivated students. The successful applicant should have both an excellent scholastic record and sustained potential in research. Exposure to both laboratory bench work and clinical care in private practice, academic medicine or emergency room experience is also highly recommended. The combined degree program, while emphasizing continuity between clinical and basic sciences curricula, provides training that can lead to significant scientific contributions in academic and corporate research, clinical practice or a combination of both.
Research Opportunities

Students in the Medical Science Training Program may pursue their research under the auspices of any of the Baylor College of Medicine Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences programs as well as Rice University Bioengineering Graduate Program.
Afraid of food? The answer may be in the basal forebrain
A small neuronal circuit in the basal forebrain connects with and overrides feeding behaviors regulated by the hypothalamus.
Turning unexpected results into research tools
“We expected that GtACR2 would inhibit the release of neurotransmitters, but surprisingly the neurons did just the opposite,” said first author Jessica Messier, who is a McNair M.D./Ph.D. Scholar in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Baylor College of Medicine. “We were puzzled by these unexpected results and investigated the causes.”
Pay attention to the ‘noise’ in your brain
In a recent study, Dr. George Denfield and his colleagues found evidence that variability can be attributed to fluctuations in internally generated signals like attention, so that the more one’s attention is split, the “noisier” the neuronal responses appear to be from the outside.
Special delivery of IL-7 signaling makes all the difference for CAR T cells fighting solid tumors
Autonomous IL7 signaling confers all the benefits of survival and endurance to CAR T cells fighting solid tumors, preventing non-specific activation that may cause toxicity.
Researchers gain insight into how the intestine repairs itself
Researchers have gained new insights into how the small intestine, one of the fastest renewing tissues in the human body, repairs itself after injury caused by intestinal rotavirus infection. Winnie Zou, a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D./Ph.D.) in Dr. Mary Estes’ lab at Baylor, was first author of the paper published in Cell Reports.
Building on Excellence
Baylor College of Medicine consistently ranks as a top choice for medical students, graduate students and health professions students.