Opportunities abound for students interested in research. Although medical students are not required to conduct research, greater than 95% do (and 100% participate in scholarly activity of some sort). At Washington University students are surrounded by exciting opportunities for learning and discovery.
Research and the Gateway Curriculum
Whether you are a novice or an experienced student-investigator, there’s a place for you to join in the discovery process. There is time for research in Phase 1 within the Gateway Curriculum’s EXPLORE component, a 4-week immersive experience that gives students the opportunity to examine their scholarly interests early in their training. You can choose didactic instruction in research (clinical, translational, and/or basic science) or one of the other branches of medical scholarship: Advocacy and Global Health, Education, or Innovation. The Office of Medical Student Research & Scholarship will assist you in identifying a research mentor. The office is led by Terrance Kummer, MD, PhD, Assistant Dean for Medical Student Research and Scholarship and EXPLORE Program Director.
If you are interested in pursuing research during Phase 2, you can participate in further immersive experiences (via an 8- or 16-week deferral of clerkships). Phase 3 provides ample opportunities to explore career interests through electives, extended study, the Year-long Research Program (YRP), and dual degree programs. The optional YRP allows students to pause their MD curriculum to immerse themselves in research work with their mentor(s) for one year. YRP students can apply for a stipend for biomedical research projects through the Office of Medical Student Research & Scholarship.
The research environment
The research enterprise at Washington University is among the most extensive in the world. Renowned and gifted faculty help students learn how discovery takes place and influence the way we practice medicine. Areas of investigation include:
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Cancer; cancer therapy (also, see a summary of significant cancer research advances at Washington University)
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Developmental biology
- Diabetes
- Genetic testing and genomics
- Imaging
- Immunology
- Infectious disease
- Microbiome; human microbiome
- Neuroscience, including brain mapping, autophagy therapeutics, and the metabolism of neurons. Read more about WashU’s new neuroscience facility that opens in the summer of 2023.
- Organ transplants
- Personalized medicine, including personalized cardiovascular medicine
- Women’s health; women’s health engineering; women’s health technologies; women’s infectious disease research
- And many, many more. Further examples can be found by Searching Washington University faculty research profiles.
Making personalized medicine a reality
A spectrum of opportunities
Students may do as little or as much research as they like. Opportunities range from elective to year-long research opportunities (see above for description). Any of these research experiences can serve as stepping stones to more advanced levels of investigation and to graduate degree programs including master’s degrees (MPH; MPHS; MSCI; MBA; MS-BDS-AI) and PhDs.