A Message from Our Director
Welcome to the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD-PhD Program) at UMass Chan Medical School! We are extremely proud of our program and our trainees, both past and present, and are grateful for your interest in our program.
The MD-PhD Program at UMass Chan was established in 1988. We are one of only 53 MD-PhD programs in the United States that receives funding from a Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) T32 grant from the NIH. Our recognition as an NIH-funded MSTP began in 2013, was renewed again in 2025, and serves as tangible marker of the excellence in clinical and research training on our medical campus.
Our MSTP spans the entire spectrum of health-related research, from laboratory-based foundational research to clinical and translational work, and also studies of health and disease in populations. Our MSTP students are integral parts of the internationally recognized centers of research excellence at UMass Chan, including in RNA biology, RNA therapeutics, innate immunity and inflammation, neurobiology, cancer biology, cell and molecular biology, digital medicine, and quantitative health sciences. Faculty on our campus who have trained MD-PhD students include two Nobel laureates (including the 2024 winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology), a Lasker Award and Breakthrough Prize winner, eight members of the National Academy of Sciences, five members of the National Academy of Medicine, seven Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators, eight American Academy of Microbiology fellows, fifteen members of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (including Dr. Pukkila-Worley), and one Royal Society member (UK). Most importantly, the collegial and openness of our faculty promotes synergy and fosters transdisciplinary research. This collaborative spirit is the defining characteristic of our medical campus that our students feel on Day 1.
Clinical training at UMass Chan is based at UMass Memorial Medical Center (UMMMC), a quaternary care facility in Worcester, MA and the largest safety net hospital in central and western Massachusetts. As such, our students have the satisfaction of learning clinical medicine by caring for a rich diversity of patients from all socioeconomic backgrounds, regions of the world and walks of life in a medical center that is an essential part of our community. In addition, UMass Chan is the only state medical school in Massachusetts, and thus is recognized as a pinnacle of public education in the Commonwealth.
Currently, approximately 80 MSTP students are enrolled in our program. Our MSTP student body and faculty form a vibrant, future-oriented community that values scientific innovation, excellence, and social responsibility. Through the Medical Student Council, student leaders play an active role in helping innovate educational and community service aspects of the program. Our MD-PhD students also foster a strong sense of community through planned and spontaneous social events, as well as program-wide celebrations of major training milestones.
I will add in closing that I am passionate about training physician-scientists and believe to my core about the importance of our career in shaping the future of medicine, policy, and science. I am an infectious disease physician-scientist and see patients on the infectious disease inpatient consult service at UMMMC. My laboratory studies host-pathogen interactions and bacterial pathogenesis, and has benefited enormously from an exceptionally talented group of MD-PhD students I have trained. It is an honor and privilege for me to lead this program.
On our website, you will find the specific details about our research programs, clinical training environment, innovative mentorship structure, the exceptional Physician-Scientist Forum (PSF) longitudinal course, thesis research committees, life in Worcester, MA, and much more. We encourage you to take some time to explore and please reach out to us with any questions!
Sincerely,
Read
Read Pukkila-Worley, MD
Professor of Medicine
Director, MSTP (MD-PhD Program)