This information was recently received from the NIH-Oxford/Cambridge scholars program. Please read on . . .

Dear students,

I am writing to tell you about a groundbreaking biomedical research doctoral program—the National Institutes of Health‑ Oxford‑ Cambridge Scholars Program. This innovative program grew from the realization that the next generation of research scientists will increasingly need to adopt interdisciplinary approaches as they strive to produce high impact research outcomes whether basic or clinical.

This is an accelerated program, and students typically receive a doctoral degree in approximately four years. There is no standard curriculum or required coursework. Rather, each student pursues an individualized course of study in which thesis work is initiated at the beginning of the first year. The thesis project is carried out as a collaboration between two labs, with half the research undertaken at NIH and half at one of the UK universities and each student being mentored by a senior scientist at each location. The program takes advantage of the superb resources and training environments at Oxford, Cambridge, and the NIH, the world’s largest biomedical research facility, the main campus of which is located in Bethesda, Maryland where a diverse community of scientists conduct their research in over 1000 laboratories.

NIH‑ Oxford‑ Cambridge Scholars have achieved at the highest levels of biomedical research, publishing first‑ author papers in journals such as Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Graduates have gone on to do post‑ doctoral training in top academic institutions and industry labs, and a few have gone directly to faculty positions.

All students are fully funded by the NIH for the duration of their doctoral work at both research sites and receive a stipend, health insurance, and travel assistance. NIH also offers an MD/PhD option which can be combined with this program to allow funded MD training to be obtained from a participating American medical school. A flyer describing this program can be found at the conclusion of this message.

The application deadline of December 15, 2008 is fast approaching. The free application is available online through the program website at http://oxcam.gpp.nih.gov . There you will find additional program details, FAQs ( http://oxcam.gpp.nih.gov/prospectiveStudents/faq.asp ), student biographies, descriptions of some of the exciting research projects underway, and more. We would also like to invite you to participate in a teleconference call to learn more about our programs. Please email us at oxcam@mail.nih.gov or mdphd@mail.nih.gov if you would like more information or would like to participate in a conference call.

Please take a look at the following flyers, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions. We hope to hear from you soon!

Contact Dr. Lisa DeFrank-Cole at 304.293.2100 or at Lisa.DeFrank-Cole@mail.wvu.edu if you are interested.