Culminating a year of mentored research, fellows in the Pathways to Careers in Clinical and Translational Research (PACCTR) program recently presented their findings to the campus community.
The PACCTR program supports clinical research training for medical, dental, nursing and pharmacy predoctoral students for short-term (two- or three-month) and intensive (one- or two-year) fellowships.
Now in its seventh year, the symposium is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Sam Hawgood, MB, BS, interim dean of the UCSF School of Medicine, in his opening remarks congratulated the fellows on their accomplishments.
Joel Palefsky, MD, associate dean for clinical and translational research and director of the PACCTR program, outlined the history of the training program at UCSF. The program has grown substantially from a class of six one-year medical student research fellows at UCSF sponsored by the Doris Duke Charitable Trust in 2001.
Following the awarding of a roadmap training grant from the NIH and the formation of the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), students can now participate in a variety of short- and long-term mentored research experiences. During this past year, 22 one- or two-year fellows and 12 two- or three-month fellows participated from all four UCSF schools as well as from six other US medical schools.
Wide-Ranging Research
The varied presentations and reflected the depth and diversity of the clinical and translational research programs at UCSF. Topics included the characterization of glioma biology with physiology-based magnetic resonance imaging, molecular characterization of cisplatin resistance in head and neck cancer, the transmissibility of Pneumocystis jirovecii, and the effect of fluvastatin on breast cancer.
Other projects were more population- and community-based. One fellow used ethnography to explore patient and provider attitudes toward sex selection in Asian communities in the United States.
Finally, several presentations highlighted UCSF’s growing international presence with fellows’ projects in areas such as colorectal cancer incidence in Kampala, Uganda, the impact of breastfeeding on malaria incidence, and neurodevelopmental impact in Ugandan children with HIV/AIDS. Some of this work could have immediate applicability; one fellow explored attitudes toward using a simple cervical barrier as a menstrual collection device in Zimbabwe.
The research presentations from the PACCTR fellows were enthusiastically received by the audience, which comprised a wide cross-section of the campus community. Mara Kijanovic, a UCSF volunteer who is interested in a career in the health sciences, attended with one of her classmates from Redwood High School in Larkspur, CA. “It was really exciting and we learned a lot about the future of medicine,” she said.
The PACCTR program leadership encourages students from all UCSF schools to seriously consider applying for one of the research fellowships. The cornerstone of the experience is a mentored research project, but fellows also attend a regular seminar series and can take classes on research methods offered by the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. One-year fellows also attend at least two national scientific meetings.
“Fellows become an intrinsic and valued part of the research community with relationships that last long beyond the formal research fellowship,” said Peter Chin-Hong, MD, PACCTR associate director and associate professor of clinical medicine. The goal of all of this is to encourage students to continue clinical and translational research during their careers, and graduates of the program are periodically interviewed.
The forecast is promising if the results of a recent survey are any indication. Ninety-five percent of participants in the first five classes of clinical and translational research fellows were still committed to a career in research.
For more information, students are encouraged to contact Cecily Hunter, program coordinator.
