Events

An MD-PhD program is more than your MD and PhD curriculum. It allows you develop friendship with your fellow MD-PhD colleagues and make new contacts within the scientific community.

Annual Retreat

One unique aspect of the UNC MD-PhD curriculum is the annual program retreat, which is typically the first event of the school year. Each year all the program participants gather at the North Carolina beach. The goal of the retreat is to welcome the incoming student, but it is also an opportunity to discuss "business" items and plan for the new school year. Perhaps the best part of the retreat is the time allocated for R&R before diving back into the work of the new semester.

Monday Night Seminars

The program holds Monday night dinner seminars twice per month during the school year which cover clinical and biomedical research topics. The other seminars are given by local scientists and/or physicians invited by the program to discuss cutting-edge research. Most speakers come from UNC or other nearby research centers (Duke and RTP). These are excellent opportunities for junior students to meet faculty members with whom they might consider research rotations and for senior students to review topics outside of their field of expertise.

• John Buse, MD-PhD: Perspectives on Diabetes from the Road Less Traveled
• Claire Dees, MD: Recent Advances in Breast Cancer- highlights from several Clinical Trials.
• Joanne Kurtzberg, MD (Duke U): Cord Blood Banking
• Alex Duncan, MD-PhD and Beth Duncan, MD-PhD: The MD-PhD couple: a balancing act.
• Holden Thorp, PhD: My 30 Million MBA (or how not to start a biotech firm)
• Barry Popkin, PhD: Dynamics of Global Transition
• Bryan Roth, MD-PhD: Mining the receptorome- a highly efficient approach for CNS Drug Delivery
• Ryan Miller, MD-PhD: Genetically-engineered Mouse (GEM) Models of Astrocytoma: Bridging the Drug Development - Personalized Medicine Gap
• Etta Pisano, MD: Getting it all done: medicine, research and family.

Distinguished Medical Scientist Lecturer

It is the pleasure of the MD-PhD Program to host a nationally recognized physician-scientist each year. This individual gives a lecture to the general medical school community but also spends an extended time with our MD-PhD students.

Past Distinguished Medical Scientist Lecturers:

• Dr. Alan Schwartz, Chairman Pediatrics Washington University
• Dr. Chirstine Seidman, Harvard University
• Dr. Brian Drucker, Oregon Health Sciences
• Dr. Peter Agre, Nobel Laureate, Johns Hopkins

Alumni Lecturer:

Each year, the program invites back one of its own to share their perspective of life after graduation from the University of North Carolina.

Other Opportunities for the MD-PhD program students:

Throughout the year, a number of distinguished individuals visit the UNC School of Medicine. The MD-PHD program staff arranges MD-PhD only events whenever possible. Our students have been able to meet and learn from:

• Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director, Center for Disease Control
• Dr. Ben Carson, Johns Hopkins
• Dr. Victoria Frazier, Washington University, St Louis
• Dr. Griffin Rodgers, Director, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
• Dr. Steven Korn, Program Director, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
• Dr. Phillip Greenland, Editor Archives of Internal Medicine