The School of Medicine (SOM) at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is fully committed to promoting research across the translational spectrum to bridge basic science and clinical research, and recognizes the significant role Physician-Scientists play in translational research and advancing research to practice of medicine. As a result, the School of Medicine Strategic Plan Forward Together, is supporting the Physician Scientist Training Program (PSTP) – a training program to specifically enhance the career development of Physician-Scientist trainees who are close to their transition to faculty positions. The program functions as a pipeline to recruit, train, and retain the most promising individuals to our clinical programs, and provide them with mentorship and support to foster their careers.

The PSTP supports Physician-Scientists at two stages: the resident/fellowship level and early-stage faculty level. For both stages, the program partners with the trainees’ home departments and provide funding to support their research efforts. In addition to receiving monetary support, trainees enter a career development program with peer-level physician scientists across multiple clinical disciplines.

All trainees receive 2 years of support through PSTP

A Word from the Director

“The School of Medicine Physician Scientist Training Program provides a community of developing physician scientists at UNC with resources needed to help them navigate the transition from trainee to independent investigator, a particularly perilous career development segment for these individuals. Traditionally programs like this have arisen in single clinical departments and focus on a single medical specialty, the support across all medical specialties by this program at UNC creates a multidisciplinary environment in which allows our trainees to benefit from experiences of a larger community than they would through their departmental affiliations alone. This program clearly enhances our capacity to train physician scientists, leveraging the strengths of our clinical training programs and tremendous research enterprise to create a top training destination for Physician Scientist trainees.”

–Joseph (Alex) Duncan, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology

Questions about the program can be sent to Alex Duncan.

Hear from the SOM PSTP Trainees

“The PSTP program has allowed me greater flexibility in how I allocate my startup funds. But the best part is joining a community of physician-scientists who can provide near-peer mentorship. Sharing our successes and challenges with each other as we navigate the early career hurdles allows us to all work a little smarter, not harder, and have more fun while doing so.”

-Matthew Vogt, MD, PhD

SOM PSTP Faculty Trainee

“I have found the PSTP community here at UNC very supportive of my career development and growth as a basic scientist and physician, and the K grant writing group extremely helpful. It is a rapidly growing community and it is nice to meet physician scientists from various departments and have the opportunity to form new collaborations through the program.”

-Alena Markmann, MD, PhD

SOM PSTP Resident / Fellow Trainee – currently a faculty member