Research
Opportunities for MUSC Students
Transcript:
Guest: Yusuf Hannun – Biochemistry & Molecular
Biology
Host: Dr. Linda Austin –
Psychiatry
Dr. Linda Austin: I’m Dr.
Linda Austin. I’m talking, today, with
Professor Yusuf Hannun who is Professor of Biochemistry and Associate Director
of Research at Hollings
Cancer Center. Dr. Hannun, in this podcast, I’d like for us
to talk about research opportunities for graduate students here at MUSC, for
post docs, also for residents. Can you
tell us a little bit, as if you’re speaking to somebody wanting to learn about
those opportunities? What do we offer? What are some of our strengths here for
training?
Yusuf Hannun: Thank you,
Linda, for asking that question. We
actually have a lot of opportunities for all these categories of trainees or
prospective trainees. As you know, we
have a graduate school that’s dedicated to graduate education. The dean is Perry Halushka. We have a common interest in this graduate
school. Students take one year of a
common curriculum and then they decide on what departments or programs they
want to join, and they actually have to choose a specific mentor where they can
perform their thesis work.
Predominantly, we offer PhD degrees and a few masters’ degrees in the
basic science department.
So, for graduate students, there are ample opportunities. I don’t know the number off the top of my
head, but possibly, 100, 120 basic science labs and maybe another 50 research
labs throughout the medical center that are accessible to graduate
students. So, they have a plethora of
opportunities to choose from, whether it’s neuroscience, cancer, inflammation,
diabetes, structural biology, chemical biology, pharmacology, physiology,
microbiology. They have a whole variety
of subjects to choose from and an even richer menu of talented mentors to choose
from. The choice of a mentor is critical
for graduate students because that’s what they will be doing, spending three,
four, five years in one laboratory with one mentor directing them and taking
them on to the next step.
Dr. Linda Austin: And we
have a medical scientist training program here as well.
Yusuf Hannun: We also have
a medical science training program which is NIH funded. It’s funded by the National Institutes of
Health. It is directed toward students
who desire a dual degree, one as an MD and one as a PhD. These are highly talented students. The process is highly competitive. The program pays for their entire education
throughout the PhD and MD degrees. It’s
intertwined. They start with medical
degree studies for two years, then their PhD work. Then they finish with two years of clinical
work. This is a highly successful
program here and it’s a highlight of what we have. And again, these students can access, pretty
much, all the same mentors and laboratories and disciplines that the graduate
students can.
I could also add that, for residents and fellows, there are all
these research programs that are accessible to them and they can spend time
there, whether it’s a few months, a year, or two years. There are many funding opportunities for
clinical residents and fellows who want to spend extra time in the lab, which
eases that process significantly. In
addition, clinical residents and fellows have options, of what we call,
training in translational research and clinical trials. And we have a formal master’s program, so
they can acquire a master’s degree in clinical trials and clinical
research.
Dr. Linda Austin: Wow. It sounds like an enormous variety of
opportunities.
Yusuf Hannun:
Tremendous. And, what’s exciting
is that this is the time to be in it, all of these discoveries that are ongoing
in the basic sciences, all the, what we call, translational aspects of that,
meaning, to take those basic science discoveries to clinical situations, or
vice versa, take things one learns, observations one learns, or acquires from
clinical studies back to understanding them at the basic level. This is a place to be to study that. This is the time to be studying that.
Dr. Linda Austin: Thanks so
much for talking with us about this.
Yusuf Hannun: You’re
welcome. Thank you very much.
If you have any questions about the services
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Carolina or if you would like to schedule an
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