On October 21, 2023, the MSTP held its annual Fall Retreat. The theme was, “Leading Research Ambitions to Funding Throughout Physician Scientists’ Training & Future Careers.”

Highlights of the retreat included advice from study section members on training and career development awards, a moderated Q&A longitudinal advice panel featuring students and faculty in various stages of their training and careers, peer advice from a student and their PI on how to 'manage up' and prevail over obstacles into a successful training grant award, a group presentation by MD/PhD Fellows on how they grew their passions for research during residency and fellowship, and an interactive group activity on developing new research ideas.

We were honored to be joined by the following presenters (in order of presentation):

• Leah Kottyan, PhD: 
  • Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
• Mike Jankowski, PhD: 
  • Associate Director of Admissions & Recruitment, MSTP
  • Director of Research in the Department of Anesthesia, Division of Pain Management at CCHMC
  • Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
• Senad Divanovic, PhD: 
  • Director of Admissions, Immunology Graduate Program
  • Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
• Andrew Cox, MD, PhD: 
  • Clinical Fellow, Division of Infectious Diseases, CCHMC
• Nina Prasanphanich, MD, PhD: 
  • Clinical Fellow, Division of Infectious Diseases, CCHMC
• Abigail Russi, MD, PhD: 
  • Clinical Fellow, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, CCHMC
• Joshua Sheak, MD, PhD: 
  • Clinical Fellow, Division of Neonatology and Pulmonary Biology, Perinatal Institute, CCHMC
• Tom Cunningham, PhD: 
  • Associate Professor in the Cancer Biology Department at UC College of Medicine
• Gurjit Khurana Hershey, MD, PhD:
  • Program Director, MSTP
  • Director, Division of Asthma Research
  • Co-Director, Office of Pediatric Clinical Fellowships
  • Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
• Laura Ngwenya, MD, PhD: 
  • Vice Chair of Research, Dept. of Neurosurgery, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
  • Director, Neurotrauma Center, UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute
  • Associate Professor, Departments of Neurosurgery & Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine
• Stephen Waggoner, PhD: 
  • Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
• Donald Gilbert, MD, MS:
  • Associate Director of Curriculum Development, MSTP
  • Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

And the below featured student presenters and panel members were excellent: 

• Jake Stevens, G4; Pablo Alarcon, G5; Mary Bedard, M3; Kim Kraus, M4; Zana Percy, M3.

Many thanks to the Enrichment Committee for their hard work to put together the retreat, including: Sydney Treichel, G2; Akshata Rudrapatna, G1; Aliyah Lingo, G1 under the leadership of Donald Gilbert, MD, MS (MSTP Associate Director of Curriculum Development) and Sara Cohen (MSTP Program Manager).