MSTP - Medical Scientist Training Program

The UCLA Medical Scientist Training Program

The Medical Scientist Training Program at UCLA in conjunction with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is designed for the education and training of exceptionally qualified individuals for careers in biomedical science. The MSTP requires an average of seven years of study leading to both the M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. The program seeks to provide an optimum environment for education and research utilizing the individual talents of participating faculty and students leading to a greater understanding of basic biology and of the causes and treatment of human disease. The program encourages independent thinking, creativity, self-motivated lifelong learning, personal responsibility and service.

Program Faculty

There are well over a hundred core faculty at UCLA and Caltech participating in the program. MSTP faculty members tend to be leading researchers expert in postgraduate training or exciting young faculty. The MSTP faculty has strong research funding support from a wide variety of sources including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and many private organizations and foundations. Many other basic science and clinical faculty at UCLA and basic science faculty at Caltech are available to serve as mentors, giving students maximum choice and flexibility in the selection of a program tailored to their research interests.

About the Institutions

UCLA is the only campus among the nation’s top ten research universities that was established in the 20th century. Its mission is to foster undergraduate and postgraduate scholarship, research and public service. It is among the NIH Top Ten in federal support for research and development. Known for academic excellence, many of its programs are rated among the best in the nation, some among the best in the world. UCLA’s outstanding hospital and clinics, libraries, health care facilities, and performing arts centers add greatly to the scholarly environment. Its continuing education programs and volunteer outreach efforts by students, faculty, staff and alumni make it a leader in service in the Southern California region.

An important tradition at UCLA is the intensity of the interactions between clinical and basic scientists which, along with the quality of research, commitment to training, availability of research funding and physical resources, have resulted in many outstanding research achievements.

The California Institute of Technology is an educational community in which undergraduate and graduate students in science and engineering are integrated with faculty and facilities that are among the best in the world. Caltech has recently opened a new biology research building that focuses on molecular structure, behavior, imaging and mouse genetics, in addition to its current programs in computational neuroscience, molecular genetics, cellular and structural biology, neurobiology, biomedical engineering, and bioorganic chemistry. An extraordinary number of Nobel Laureates have done or are doing their research at the Institute. The 124-acre campus is located in Pasadena, a city of 135,000, approximately 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

Facilities

The UCLA Center for the Health Sciences (CHS) is a complex of patient care, education and research facilities that has achieved an international reputation for its health care programs and scientific advancements. Since its opening in 1955, the CHS has grown into one of the largest health science center in the country, serving more than a quarter of a million people each year. Contained within the complex are the schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and public health. The UCLA Medical Center has been rated the best hospital in the West year after year and a network of community health centers give medical students the full spectrum of health care education and patient populations. The Center for Health Sciences includes the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the outpatient Medical Plaza, the Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital, Jules Stein Eye Institute, Doris Stein Eye Research Center, the MacDonald Research Laboratories housing the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Gonda (Goldschmeid) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center, the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Reed Neurological Research Center. Finally, there are many VA, county and private hospitals affiliated with the medical school which provide a rich environment for the education and training of medical students.

Adjacent to the CHS complex are the Life Sciences Building, Young Hall, the Molecular Biology Institute and the Molecular Sciences building which house the basic sciences departments of the College of Letters and Science including Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics. Close by is the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. MSTP students utilize these faculties and facilities for their research training as well as medical school departments.

Caltech Facilities

The Division of Biology is housed in a cluster of buildings on the west side of the Institute campus. The William G. Kerckhoff Laboratories of the Biological Sciences, the Gordon A. Alles Laboratory for Molecular Biology, the Mabel and Arnold Beckman Laboratories of Behavioral Biology, and the Beckman Institute house the majority of the research labs in the Division of Biology. In addition, several groups are interspersed with laboratories from the Division of Chemistry in Braun Laboratories and the Norman W. Church Laboratory for Chemical Biology. Together, these facilities provide space in a compact arrangement that facilitates communication among various research groups with common interests.