Clinician-Scientist Training Program (CSTP) for Medical Students

The program is available to medical students at any point during their training and will extend their graduation date by one year. Two medical student trainees will be accepted per year.

We are committed to training future generations of clinician-scientists from underrepresented backgrounds. Our CSTP will provide the scientific resources, professional mentorship, educational environment, and institutional support required to execute this charge. Increasing diversity in research improves the quality of research and increases the probability of participation in, and improved health outcomes for underserved or health disparity populations.

Training Experience

Trainees will focus on research in the laboratories of their Primary Research Mentor and/or their co-mentors. The training experience will include literature evaluation, experimental design, learning of research techniques, data collection, troubleshooting methodology, data analysis, public presentation of research results, and manuscript publication. The trainees will work with their Primary Research Mentor to prepare both written and oral research proposals. Once the proposal is approved by faculty committees, the research can start.

The trainee will provide written and oral reports to their faculty committee every six months and after completion of the program, the trainee will continue to follow up every 6-12 months on such issues as continuing data analysis and project completion, including publication of results and future career plans.

Flexibility is key. Less experienced program participants may require a phased developmental period including skill-building followed by a period of supervised research. Candidates with more experience at the time of selection may need a shorter developmental period.

Trainees will receive a Training Requirement Checklist that will explain the timeline of the program and the date when each step must be completed.

Research Selection

The Primary Research Mentor is selected by the trainee from the list of Program Faculty. There are 20 Program Faculty in our Otolaryngology CSTP, including 16 PhD scientists and 4 clinician-scientists.

Our program offers a diverse portfolio of basic, translational, and clinical research. USC has particular strengths in research areas related to otolaryngology, including auditory/vestibular, cancer, tissue development and regeneration, and neuroimaging.

Every member of our Program Faculty has multiple research collaborations. Trainees in this program may choose to be involved in these collaborations.

Many of the most exciting projects require collaborators with significant differences in expertise, but which can be used synergistically to rapidly advance the field. In some cases, where the trainee works closely with the collaborator, the collaborator may be considered a co-mentor. This presents additional opportunities for learning. In fact, the ability of the trainees to access nearly any faculty member at USC as a co-mentor is one of the key benefits of our CSTP. Co-mentors must be approved by the Program Director and the Research Advisory Committee.

To identify research area of interest, please consult the faculty lab pages linked below: