phd in research medicine

PhD Programs

Empowering students to follow their curiosity

Bioengineering PhD

Jointly supported by the School of Engineering and the School of Medicine, the bioengineering program merges engineering principles with scientific discovery and technology to encourage the development of new medical devices and treatments.

Biosciences PhD

panning the School of Medicine and the School of Humanities and Sciences, students have the best of both worlds: the diversity of a large umbrella program coupled with the support of a small academic setting.

The Biosciences PhD program offers 14 home programs representing eight basic science departments and six interdisciplinary programs.

Biomedical Physics (BMP) PhD Program

Supported by the Departments of Radiology and Radiation Oncology, the Biomedical Physics PhD program seeks students interested in radiation therapy, imaging science, and molecular imaging and diagnostics as applied to clinical medicine. 

PhD in Epidemiology and Clinical Research

The PhD program in epidemiology and clinical research will provide methodologic and interdisciplinary training that will equip students to carry out cutting-edge epidemiologic research. The program trains students in the tools of modern epidemiology, with heavy emphases on statistics, computer science, genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics.

PhD in Health Policy

Stanford Health Policy offers a PhD program which promises to educate students who will be scholarly leaders in the field of health policy, and will be highly knowledgeable about the theoretical and empirical approaches that can be applied in the development of improvements in health policy and the health care system. These students will be well prepared for positions in academic institutions, government institutions, and private sector organizations with a demand for high-level analysis of health policy issues.

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Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCaTS)

Ph.d. program.

In support of its mission to develop independent clinical and translational science researchers, the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCaTS) collaborates with Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Rochester, Minnesota, to offer a Ph.D. track in clinical and translational science.

While Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences administers the overall Ph.D. Program, CCaTS delivers the clinical and translational science track's course work and oversees the mentored research experience, a cornerstone of the program. Mentors are Mayo Clinic faculty from a wide range of disciplines.

Read more about Ph.D. Program admissions or see profiles of current Ph.D. students in the clinical and translational science track.

Our Education Contacts page contains a listing of team members who can assist you with questions.

Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. Program

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Cellular and Molecular Medicine, PhD

School of medicine.

The Graduate Training Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine prepares scientists for laboratory research at the cellular and molecular level with a direct impact on the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of human diseases. The Ph.D. graduates of the program obtain rigorous training in scientific research and develop a thorough knowledge of human biology and human diseases.

This program grew out of a need for graduate training at the interface between medicine and the traditional basic science disciplines. Rapid progress in cellular and molecular biology has strongly impacted clinical medicine, offering insights about the fundamental causes of many diseases. Translational research—often described as “bench-to-bedside” studies—accelerates the discovery of new treatments directed at the basic mechanisms of disorder and disease. Thus, the goal of this program is to train scientists who will make discoveries in the laboratory that can be applied expeditiously to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. New technology allows scientists to identify genetic and molecular defects causing or predisposing to disease. The trainees in this program are working precisely at this interface between science and medicine to contribute to the long-term well-being of society.

Students will work in well-equipped laboratories of approximately 140 program faculty located throughout the medical school campus. These researchers are supported by many shared facilities including microscopy, molecular biology, and protein chemistry.

Financial Aid

The program is supported by a combination of monies from the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust and an NIH training grant. Each student is provided a stipend, health and dental insurance, and tuition throughout their years in the program. The program covers these benefits during the students’ first year; in subsequent years, the research advisor is responsible.

Admission Requirements

The mission of the CMM program is to recruit and train outstanding PhD candidates in translational research. We use a holistic approach in evaluating applicants, to ensure the best fit between our training program and trainees. Evidence of prior research experience is paramount in the admissions process, along with letters from research mentors. A bachelor’s degree from a qualified college or university is required. Applicants are expected to have taken the following courses: biology, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, physics, and calculus. Cell biology and/or biochemistry is recommended. Passage of the TOEFL is required for all students whose undergraduate instruction was conducted in a language other than English. CMM does not require or review GRE scores in the admissions process.

CMM draws from the top of an extremely strong and deep pool of candidates.  Although we do not use score cut-offs, the average accepted student has a GPA of 3.71. Our class size varies between 20-24, and includes in addition to PhD candidates, trainees in dual MD/PhD, DVM/PhD programs and Clinical Fellows.  Yield on admissions offers is high, ranging from 45-69%, with an average of 55% of offers resulting in acceptance.

The Vivian Thomas Scholars Initiative (VTSI) is dedicated to nurturing, mentoring and connecting the exceptional diverse talent that exists at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority serving institutions. (MSIs) to STEM graduate education and future leadership in STEM careers.  The application for VTSI and the supplemental questions are found within the School of Medicine application for those interested in applying.

GEM (The National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science) award fellowships to eligible students who pursue graduate education in science or engineering.  For more information, please visit GEM Fellowship webpage .  Prospective fellows apply to GEM and the sponsoring institutions at the same time.  Potential candidates must indicate on the JHU application that they have received or are being considered for a GEM Fellowship.

Inquiries regarding admissions should be referred to:

Office of the Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine 1830 E. Monument Street, Suite 2-103 Telephone: (410) 614-0391; (410) 614-3640

For questions not addressed on these pages, please email [email protected].

Program Requirements

Students must complete successfully the following courses:

Students are required to take four electives to further broaden their experience in cellular and molecular medicine during the duration of their studies.  Mandatory one elective out of the four required must be a Biostatistics course.  Rigor and Reproducibility in Research (3R's) principles are integrated throughout the program's coursework.  The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) ethics training taken in year one fulfills a graduation requirement.   An Ethics refresher course includes attending several Research Integrity Colloquium lectures each year.

Students are expected to perform research rotations in at least three different laboratories culminating with the selection of a thesis advisor to begin original research leading to their doctoral dissertation. All rotations must be performed in the laboratories of CMM faculty members.

Additionally, the program requires students to actively participate in the OPTIONS Career Curriculum , managed by the Professional Development and Career Office, that provides protected time for students to develop their career goals and prepare for their future. Through interactive workshops, students discover careers of interest, develop career-specific skills and build a professional network while connecting with fellow trainees with similar interests.

A University-mandated Doctor of Philosophy Board Oral Examination must be completed by the end of the second year of study. Annual thesis committee meetings are held until such time as the thesis committee believes the student is ready to write their doctoral dissertation. The dissertation is based on the student’s novel research; a public seminar of thesis work is a graduation requirement.

Biomedical PhD Programs

The following programs are administered in the School of Medicine by the  Office of Biomedical Graduate Education  (OBGE).

Each PhD program has its own course work and preliminary exam requirements, but all programs follow a general academic pattern. The first year is generally devoted to course work and laboratory rotations. At the beginning of the second year, students enter their thesis labs, finish course work and assemble dissertation committees. At the end of the second year, students complete their preliminary exam, which is generally based on their proposed dissertation project. After passing the preliminary exam, the student is fully devoted to research. Some programs have a teaching requirement but all students can serve as teaching assistants with the approval of their dissertation mentor.

Learn more about specific departmental requirements, offerings, leadership, and faculty on each program’s webpage.

• Biochemistry
• Biostatistics
• Cell & Molecular Biology *
• Cell Biology  (non-admitting)
• Cognitive Neuroscience † *
• Computational Biology & Bioinformatics *
• Developmental & Stem Cell Biology † *
• Integrated Toxicology & Environmental Health Program † *
• Medical Physics
• Medical Scientist Training Program - MD/PhD
• Molecular Cancer Biology
• Molecular Genetics & Microbiology
• Neurobiology
• Pharmacology
• Population Health Sciences
• University Program in Genetics & Genomics *

† Admitting program

Admitting interdisciplinary programs offer students an opportunity to develop foundational skills with interdisciplinary faculty from the admitting program in the first two years of study. Students then affiliate into a degree-granting program to join a lab, continue study, and earn the Ph.D. degree.

*Interdisciplinary program

Interdisciplinary programs offer training from faculty from across Duke departments who bring together valuable field knowledge from a variety of academic perspectives. Some interdisciplinary programs are admitting programs and constitute only the first two years of training; others are degree-granting and see students through the entire PhD degree. Admitting programs are denoted with a †.

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About the PhD in Clinical Investigation Program

The program is targeted toward internal physician postdoctoral fellows in clinical departments of the School of Medicine. It involves one year of full-time academic classroom work, followed by at least two years of mentored training in clinical research. The combination of a year of instruction and a year of clinicals allows students the scientific grounding for subsequent original research. This research effort is jointly mentored by faculty from the program and a mentor from the student’s SOM department. After fulfilling all requirements, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Clinical Investigation is awarded by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Curriculum for the PhD in Clinical Investigation

Browse an overview of this program's requirements in the JHU  Academic Catalogue  and explore all course offerings in the Bloomberg School  Course Directory .

Prerequisites for the PhD Degree

• Satisfactory completion of 90 credit hours of course work, including one year of full-time in-residency course work
• Five additional courses to be taken in the second or third years
• Continuous registration for the Research Forum and registration for Thesis Research each term
• Completion of a Comprehensive Exam at the end of the didactic year
• Satisfaction of all university requirements for the PhD, including completion of a Preliminary Oral Examination, Thesis Preparation, and Thesis Defense

Admissions Requirements

For general admissions requirements, please visit the How to Apply page. For our PhD specific application requirements, please see our How to Apply page.

This specific program also requires:

Prior Graduate Degree

Advanced medical degree: e.g., MD, MBBS, PhD

Prior Work Experience

Work with human subjects in clinical investigation

Standardized Test Scores

Standardized test scores  are required  for this program. This program accepts the following standardized test scores: USMLE and GRE or MCAT.  Applications will be reviewed holistically based on all application components.

GTPCI is one of 60 national recipients of an NIH-sponsored CTSA KL2 Award to support institutional career development programs for physicians and dentists, encouraging them to become independent, patient-oriented clinical investigators. This Multi- disciplinary Clinical Research Career Development Program funds clinical research training for a broad group of physicians, dentists, and other scientists who have a doctorate in a health-related field, including pharmacy, nursing, epidemiology, and behavioral sciences. The Johns Hopkins KL2 program will provide career development support for junior faculty physicians or dentists from within Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

Information regarding the cost of tuition and fees can be found on the Bloomberg School's Tuition and Fees page.

Need-Based Relocation Grants Students who  are admitted to PhD programs at JHU  starting in Fall 2023 or beyond can apply to receive a $1500 need-based grant to offset the costs of relocating to be able to attend JHU.   These grants provide funding to a portion of incoming students who, without this money, may otherwise not be able to afford to relocate to JHU for their PhD program. This is not a merit-based grant. Applications will be evaluated solely based on financial need.  View more information about the need-based relocation grants for PhD students .

Questions about the program? We're happy to help.

Director Khalil Ghanem, MD, PhD

Academic Program Manager Cristina A. DeNardo, MEd 410-502-9734 [email protected]

THE ENGERHARDT SCHOOL OF GLOBAL HEALTH AND BIOETHICS AT EUCLID AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL UNIVERSITY UNDER UNITED NATIONS TS 49006/7

Online PhD in Academic and Research Medicine

Program Type

School / institute.

Online (Asynchonous)

USD 145 per credit hour

Scholarships

Full (officials of PS); 15% off (ECOWAS and IGOs)

EUCLID, an intergovernmental  treaty-based institution with a university mandate, offers to select students from the general public an online PhD in academic medicine with a focus on clinical research and academic (faculty) careers. Its vision is to bring to a wider and Global South audience the world-class best practices taught and experienced at our two institutions of reference: Stanford and Cedars-Sinai .

It is, to date, the only PhD program in this field offered by an international intergovernmental organization.

Its purpose is to prepare highly qualified academic and research medicine professionals able to serve in civil service, international organizations , health care institutions, universities, as well as non-governmental organizations globally.

Prof Dr Ernst von Schwarz, one of the world’s most published cardiologists, is also also a member of our distinguished faculty group.

Academic Presentation of the Program

Important note: this is not a medical practice program and does not result in students obtaining an MD, DO, MBBS or other credentials associated with the practice of medicine. Either incoming students already have such credentials, or come from nursing, pharmacy or public health and seek to advance to academic teaching and research without the intention to practice clinical and licensed medicine. MD/PhD programs do exist (notably in the United States), but this program is not an MD/PhD program.

Academic, theoretical and research medicine are unique areas of expertise that should not be confused with the traditional-clinical practice of medicine.

Few programs are truly international in scope so as to fully prepare graduates for global civil service or corporate careers that will engage a wide variety of academic and research medicine challenges with a number of elective courses, including vaccine research, drug development, and academic leadership, etc.

To answer this challenge, EUCLID has designed a world-class doctoral curriculum, which is presented here with full documentation of syllabus and faculty resources, as well as total tuition. This documentation will enable potential students to determine if this program is suitable and aligned with their career objectives.

AUDIENCE | INTEREST GROUPS

This unique PhD program focuses on the  practical and policy aspects of academic and research rather than the advancement of purely theoretical knowledge.

This doctoral program was primarily designed to serve civil servants of EUCLID’s Participating States, but it is also open to the general public as an excellent route to pursue a career within inter-governmental bodies, NGOs and the public sector.

Thanks to its low tuition and institutional relationships, it is expected to be of special interest to Global South/African students.

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Requirements

Featured video, program outline.

ELECTIVE COURSES

Note: All courses available in the EUCLID database can be considered elective, after review and approval by your EUCLID counselor. Graduate level degrees may include a certain number of undergraduate electives. Likewise, undergraduate roadmaps may be built using graduate level courses. Again, prospective students are reminded that the final degree roadmap must be reviewed and approved by the Admissions Officer to ensure logical progression of subjects covered and conformity with international standards.

Note: to consult the current and official curriculum/list of courses from the EUCLID CMS database, please visit: EUCLID Available Degree Programs and follow the program link.

Employment Outlook

Why Study @ EUCLID?

EUCLID is the only intergovernmental, treaty-based university with a UN registered charter and recognized expertise in diplomacy. Join the alma mater of ambassadors and senior officials globally.

Note: if the PDF brochure is unavailable (or outdated by 2 years), please contact [email protected]

EUCLID AT WORK: RECENT NEWS AND ARTICLES

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M.D./Ph.D. Program

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Educating physician-scientists to bridge biomedical research and clinical care.

The University of Louisville School of Medicine offers a Physician Scientist training program for the fulfillment of requirements for M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. The comprehensive program includes two years in pre-clinical medical training, followed by graduate training in one of U of L's basic research departments, and two years of medical rotations for clinical training.

The small size of the program ensures a high quality training experience providing individualized attention to its students. As a UofL MD/PhD student you'll experience great flexibility in designing a research program and have exceptional access to a wide variety of research experiences in top-flight research laboratories. You will receive hands-on experience in the patient simulation center and work with standardized patients beginning in the first year. A wide variety of clinical experiences are available through our hospital partnerships in Louisville and statewide. Applicants should have fulfilled prerequisites for admission to the School of Medicine (including the MCAT standardized examination) and have a proven commitment to biomedical research. Students in the program will receive full tuition remission, a stipend during all phases of the curriculum, and health insurance during the graduate research phase.

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Doctoral studies are carried out by science postgraduates, medical students combining clinical training with the PhD, and clinically qualified doctors undertaking scientific training. The research covers the whole spectrum of medical science from basic biology to clinical therapies.

Along with the specific research training provided in the laboratory in which they work, students receive further training within the department in the form of postgraduate workshops concentrating on research techniques, research seminars both on the Addenbrooke's site and elsewhere in the University, and postgraduate student seminars dealing with generic skills such as intellectual property rights, writing a thesis or paper, and entrepreneurship.

Candidates wishing to take a shorter course of research and write a thesis for the master's after one year may apply for the MPhil in Medical Sciences.

Learning Outcomes

Those who wish to progress to a PhD after completing an MPhil will be required to satisfy their potential supervisor, Head of Department and the Faculty Degree Committee that they have the skills and ability to achieve the higher degree.

The Postgraduate Virtual Open Day usually takes place at the end of October. It’s a great opportunity to ask questions to admissions staff and academics, explore the Colleges virtually, and to find out more about courses, the application process and funding opportunities. Visit the  Postgraduate Open Day  page for more details.

See further the  Postgraduate Admissions Events  pages for other events relating to Postgraduate study, including study fairs, visits and international events.

Key Information

3-4 years full-time, 4-7 years part-time, study mode : research, doctor of philosophy, department of medicine, course - related enquiries, application - related enquiries, course on department website, dates and deadlines:, lent 2024 (closed).

Some courses can close early. See the Deadlines page for guidance on when to apply.

Easter 2024 (Closed)

Michaelmas 2024, easter 2025, funding deadlines.

These deadlines apply to applications for courses starting in Michaelmas 2024, Lent 2025 and Easter 2025.

Similar Courses

• MD (Doctor of Medicine) MD
• Medical Science (Medicine) MPhil
• Obstetrics and Gynaecology PhD
• Biological Sciences at the Department of Veterinary Medicine PhD
• Biological Science (Pharmacology) by thesis MPhil

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Online PhD in Academic Medicine

@ EUCLID | An Intergovernmental University An affordable, fully online PhD in academic medicine (in full: (Academic and Research Medicine) offered by EUCLID, an intergovernmental mandate and proven track-record of training world-class civil servants, diplomats, professors, and experts. Breadcrumbs: Home (Direct Links) | DARM Landing Page Mobile-friendly equivalent: available at  https://m.euclid.int/programs/online-phd-academic-research-medicine/  (this page is mobile-friendly)  EUCLID Programs page with program code: https://www.euclid.int/degreecourses.asp?DegreeIndex=102

EUCLID, an intergovernmental treaty-based institution with a university mandate, offers to select students from the general public an online PhD in academic medicine with a focus on clinical research and academic (faculty) careers. Its vision is to bring to a wider and Global South audience the world-class best practices taught and experienced at our two institutions of reference: Stanford and Cedars-Sinai . It is, to date, the only PhD program in this field offered by an international intergovernmental organization. Its purpose is to prepare highly qualified academic and research medicine professionals able to serve in civil service, international organizations, health care institutions, universities, as well as non-governmental organizations globally.

A rare PhD in Academic Medicine Speciality

Academic medicine PhD holders are post-graduate graduates with a proven ability to lead teaching and research in academic and research institutions. This affordable and fully online PhD program aims to prepare medical and pharmaceutical graduates (MD, DO, MBBS, MPharm, MSN, some MPH, Mbiochemistry) for cutting edge research and teaching careers at the world's leading institutions.

Become a Recognized  Expert

EUCLID provides comprehensive training cover both the academic as well as professional aspects of a doctoral-level program, including: academic writing (including journal publications), grant-writing, personal and professional communications technologies, resume building (LinkedIn, portfolios), etc.

Academic Presentation

EUCLID's online Ph.D. in Academic Medicine (Academic and Research Medicine)  represents 90 US credits (120 ECTS) of coursework beyond the Bachelor's. In practice, students may enter the program with a relevant MD, DO, MSN, MBBS or other aligned Master's degree, complete 30 to 35 US credits of core doctoral courses, followed by the actual writing of the dissertation in 5 phases. The resulting thesis should be a publishable book offering a clear contribution to the field and establishing the author as a subject-matter expert.

Focus & Specializations

Among the suggested areas of focus are: - Academic publishing - Academic careers and leadership - Teaching in academic settings - Medical research - Grant writing - IGOs and non-governmental organizations - Pharmaceutical careers.

Admissions + Program Brochure

For more information on a specific point, please contact the admissions office. applicants should have a relevant master’s degree or its international equivalent (see above), awarded by a recognized institution (usually listed in the unesco-iau whed system or handbook). fluency in english (spoken and written) is required and will be tested.  students are expected to be in position to dedicate 10 to 15 effective hours of study on a weekly basis..

• Credits: About 55
• Duration: 3 years

Entire Program

With scholarship.

• IGO staff; ECOWAS residents

@ EUCLID: An Extraordinary Network of Memberships and Participations

United Nations

EUCLID's founding treaty is registered and sealed in the United Nations Treaty Series (multilateral 49006/7)

The EUCLID Secretary General is a full member of the International Association of University Presidents

Member (SG)

EUCLID is a formal party to the IACA Agreement (treaty) along with more than 80 UN Member States

EUCLID is an associate member of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education

EUCLID is a member of the Academic Council on the United Nations System

EUCLID is a member of the United Nations Academic Impact initiative

EUCLID is a member of the Association of African Universities

EUCLID is a member of the Association of Universities of Asia and the Pacific

Program Curriculum (select / core modules):

More information.

Faculty Profiles | Link

Meet EUCLID's dedicated faculty members including active diplomats and active or retired senior government officials.

Alumni Profiles | Link

EUCLID alumni constitute a high-level global network active at the United Nations and many national governments. 

Institutional Brochure | Link

Access both EUCLID's institution brochure and annual reports as well as this program's dedicated programmatic presentation in PDF format.

Institutional Recognition | Link

As an intergovernmental, treaty-backed public institution, EUCLID stands out in a crowded field of for-profit or purely national institutions of higher learning.

EARN OFFICIAL, VERIFIABLE CERTIFICATES

“Having certificates that accurately document how you have evolved over time, I feel, will be invaluable over the course of a career” — Prof. R. A. Lue, Harvard University  Get recognized for your knowledge when you earn course (module) completion certificates from EUCLID (Euclid University), and use it to demonstrate your determination and competency to become a specialized expert in the field of energy studies. All complete courses are elegible for certificate issuance, with additional fees for Accredible issuance. Disclaimer: The visual representation of the certificate here serves as an exemplar, and may be subject to change at the discretion of the University.

'EUCLID: Providing university-level training for staff of the world's foremost institutions'

Current and past students/alumni are employed by the world's foremost institutions, including:.

The world's foremost intergovernmental organization: www.un.org

US Government

Students working for US Federal Agencies including the State Dpt: www.state.gov

European Investment Bank

A major multilateral financial institutions: www.eib.org

Swiss Armed Forces

Swiss excellence, at its pinnacle international peace-keeping: www.ch.ch

The UN specialized agency serving children's needs globally: www.unicef.org

The UN specialized agency based in Geneva, serving and monitoring global health: www.who.int

Catholic Church

One of the world's oldest and most influence institutions: www.vatican.va

A major regional block for economic and political integration: www.ecowas.int

EUCLID Climat and Energy Studies Center | Liaison Office 450 Rue Baden Powell 34000 Montpellier FRANCE

Email: [email protected]     Phone: +33 (0) 4 67 69 74 13   Offices: Montpellier FR, Bangui CF, Banjul GM, Washington US

EUCLID (.int) Informations Légales Nous contacter

© 2008-2022: EUCLID (Pôle Universitaire Euclide / Euclid University) and IOSD (International Organization for Sustainable Development) - Tous droits réservés - All Rights Reserved

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MD-PhD program receives $1.1 million in NIH funding

• Written by John Keenan, UNMC strategic communications
• Published Apr 5, 2024

Justin Mott, MD, PhD

A new National Institutes of Health grant for the Medical Scientist Training Program will bring more than $1.1 million to UNMC over the next five years.

With this award, UNMC joins about one-third of the approximately 150 medical schools across the country who have NIH-funded MD-PhD programs, said Justin Mott, MD, PhD, director of the MD-PhD Scholars Program in the UNMC College of Medicine.

“The NIH put out an announcement looking for programs that had something unique in terms of trainees who were underrepresented in medicine,” Dr. Mott said. UNMC’s strength, he said, is that approximately 20% of its applicants and 20% of its trainees have a rural background.

“At most medical schools, that number is about 5 or 6%,” he said.

In addition, more than 40% of participating college of medicine faculty have a rural background or their research and clinical populations relate to rural communities. And the program showed geographic diversity, with applicants from 42 states over the past five years.

 A rural background can mean a great deal to a physician scientist, Dr, Mott said.

“Obviously, our experiences shape the questions that we ask,” he said. “Students from a rural background may be uniquely suited to ask questions about why health outcomes are not as good for members of the community who live in rural areas, why life expectancy is shorter, why there’s higher risk for some cardiovascular diseases and for some infections. What about the exposures about the culture, about the nature, of rural America is different? These scientists are ready to ask those questions.”

The strength of the program and its trainees also helped secure the funds, Dr. Mott said.

“The track record of our alumni matters a lot,” Dr. Mott said. “More than 92% of the students who come into our program stay and get both degrees, and that’s higher than the national average. And the time to achieve both degrees is at or slightly below the national average. Also, we’re setting our students up for success after they graduate.”

Trainee research strengths also reinforced program strengths. Dr. Mott said, pointing to two recent federal awards received by students:

• Aaron Schwab received a fellowship from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences this year, one of only two awards from NIEHS to UNMC currently, for a study exploring health impacts of agricultural dust exposures common in rural areas.
• Rebecca Slotkowski received a fellowship from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities in 2022, one of only four awards from the NIMHD to UNMC currently, to study a program designed to reduce sociodemographic impacts on cardiovascular risk and adverse maternal outcomes in young people in urban Omaha.

The LEAD MSTP award will allow the MD-PhD program to increase its annual cohort of accepted students from five to six, Dr. Mott said.

”This sounds like a small change, but over an eight-year program, it will increase our size to about 48 students. It also allows us to have additional support, not just through the NIH, but also through UNMC Graduate Studies, which has committed to supporting students during their graduate training based on this award.”

Dr. Mott expects the award will strengthen program recruitment, especially since grant reviewers pointed out the robust nature of the peer mentorship and scholarly community in the UNMC program.

UNMC College of Medicine Dean Bradley Britigan, MD, said the MD-PhD program is a source of pride for the college.

“From its inception, the MD-PhD program has nurtured physician scientists who have gone on to achieve great things,” Dr. Britigan said. “This new grant will allow it to grow even stronger.”

The large number of trainees with rural backgrounds grew organically, Dr. Mott said.

“This is not something that we select for in our admissions,” he said. “It’s more that the potential applicants are selecting for us. Our participating faculty, we’re about 40% who have either a rural upbringing or their clinic or their research have particular focus on rural communities. That provides an understanding, a shared background, a support system and a recognition of the value the students bring in. They may self-select into the program because of that.”

Dr. Mott credited his predecessors, Debra Romberger, MD, and Shelley Smith, PhD, for building the strong program, and thanked Dr. Britigan and Dele Davies, MD, the senior vice chancellor of academic affairs and dean of UNMC Graduate Studies, for their support.

Dr. Davies called the award “a national badge of excellence and a testament to the many years of hard work and foundation that has been laid by the dedicated faculty and leadership of the program in the college of medicine and the graduate studies program. 

“This partnership has enabled our MD-PhD program to become recognized as among the very best in the country, based on the outcomes of our students and time to degree completion.”

Dr. Davies congratulated Dr. Mott and his team, as well as his predecessors, for “their concerted and relentless effort to make this training grant a reality. This institutional training grant adds to the growing strength of UNMC’s training programs dedicated to critical areas of research emphasis that will continue to help attract and train the next generation of scientists who will answer and solve the most pressing questions in health for generations to come.”

“The institutional support has been excellent across the board from the beginning of the program,” Dr. Mott said. “The integration between medicine and graduate studies facilitates the students’ growth as physician scientists, not sometimes a physician and sometimes a scientist. And that integration was a strength as we competed with other institutions for these funds.”

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Oral Biology, PhD

The PhD program provides training for those who wish to pursue basic and/or clinical research in dental medicine or the biomedical sciences. Candidates may include those with bachelor's, master's, or DDS (or equivalent) degrees. 

FALL 2025 ENROLLMENT  |  Applications accepted June 1, 2024 - February 1, 2025

Program Co-Directors: Dr. Jill Kramer [email protected]

Dr. Rose-Anne Romano [email protected]

About the Program

This program leads to a doctoral degree in Oral Biology. 

The opportunity exists for dual-enrollment in one of the following Advanced Certificate programs: Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Periodontics, or Prosthodontics. Candidates must apply to each program separately by posted deadlines. Acceptance into each program is a separate process.

Interdisciplinary in nature, the PhD program draws upon faculty expertise in a broad range of disciplines, including biochemistry, biophysics, developmental biology, immunology, microbiology, cell and molecular biology, physiology, and pharmacology. Students choose an area of concentration from these disciplines, but may also combine work in several fields in order to support their research interests.

PhD Program in Biomedical Sciences (PPBS)

The  PhD Program in Biomedical Sciences  provides an entry portal and a common first-year curriculum, equipping first year PhD students with core knowledge and concepts to support their pursuit of a PhD degree in one of several participating departments, including Oral Biology. 

The Department of Oral Biology supports basic and clinical research directed to solve important problems affecting oral and general health.

Faculty Research Areas

Centers and Facilities

Student Research

Length of Program

The program length is 60 months of full-time attendance beginning August 15, the first year. Combined programs may entail a longer period of matriculation depending on the chosen graduate program. Dual enrolled students follow the start date of their clinical program.

Acceptance into any research program is a separate process. Program options include:

Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology | Periodontics | Prosthodontics

Leading Pediatric Obesity Research with Justin Ryder, PhD

Northwestern Medicine scientists are at the forefront of research investigating the most effective ways of treating obesity in children and teens and improving their access to care.

In this episode, J ustin Ryder , PhD , a clinical and translational obesity scientist at Feinberg, talks about the use of new GLP-1–based medications for childhood obesity and his work on several NIH-funded projects focused on understanding how pediatric obesity impacts chronic disease risk and how biology drives weight regain.   

“We have several medications that have been FDA approved in adults and now a couple that are FDA approved in pediatrics that carry weight losses of 10, 15, 20 percent on average. It's an exciting time to be in this space because we actually have real treatments that really work, that treat the underlying biology and provide individuals with a tool to be successful on their weight loss journey.” — Justin Ryder, PhD

• Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Pediatric General Surgery and Pediatrics  
• Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Surgery, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago  

Episode Notes 

Ryder shares insights from his latest research, including details from recent studies of anti-obesity medications in adolescents. He also discusses his advocacy work to ensure equal access to treatments for all.   

• Contrary to popular opinion, obesity is not a behavioral issue; it’s a disease, Ryder says. Obesity is perpetuated by susceptible genetics combined with toxic environmental factors.   
• Obesity is a chronic disease impacting approximately 15 million children in the U.S. alone. Obesity puts children at higher risk for comorbidities such as pre-diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, hypertriglyceridemia, as well as mental health issues.  
• Obesity is also perpetuated by societal factors and race and ethnicity. For example, children who come from Hispanic and African American families are disproportionately impacted by obesity as well as some of the chronic diseases associated with obesity, especially hypertension and diabetes.  
• Instead of “watchful waiting” — or anticipating that a child will outgrow obesity — aggressive treatment should be considered including intensive behavioral modification, anti-obesity medications, and bariatric surgery.   
• While there are new medications to treat obesity in children, Wegovy, Zepbound and Saxenda, they are expensive and not always covered by insurance.   
• Ryder considers the financial obstacles to anti-obesity medications as a health equity issue, as only 16 states offer access to these medications through Medicaid. His advocacy has included helping to educate key stakeholders at Medicaid on the value of these drugs.   
• At Lurie Children’s, the majority of children in weight management clinics are on Medicaid and have had no access to medication.   
• Ryder would like to see more longitudinal research on anti-obesity medications to better understand long-term outcomes, both positive and negative, and why there is such biological variability in weight response to these drugs.   
• Ryder’s latest research projects include NIH-funded studies on biological and behavioral mechanisms driving weight gain as well as steatotic liver disease.      

Additional Reading  

• Find out more about the The Teen Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery  study (Teen-LABS)   
• Read Ryder’s latest publications  
• Follow Ryder on X and LinkedIn  

Continuing Medical Education Credit

Physicians who listen to this podcast may claim continuing medical education credit after listening to an episode of this program..

Target Audience

Academic/Research, Multiple specialties

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Identify the research interests and initiatives of Feinberg faculty.
• Discuss new updates in clinical and translational research.

Accreditation Statement

The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation Statement

The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine designates this Enduring Material for a maximum of 0.50  AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™.  Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

American Board of Surgery Continuous Certification Program

Successful completion of this CME activity enables the learner to earn credit toward the CME requirement(s) of the American Board of Surgery’s Continuous Certification program. It is the CME activity provider's responsibility to submit learner completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABS credit.

All the relevant financial relationships for these individuals have been mitigated.

Disclosure Statement

Justin Ryder, PhD, receives grant or research support from Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH.  Course director, Robert Rosa, MD, has nothing to disclose. Planning committee member, Erin Spain, has nothing to disclose.  FSM’s CME Leadership, Review Committee, and Staff have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.

Read the Full Transcript

[00:00:00] Erin Spain, MS: This is Breakthroughs, a podcast from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. I'm Erin Spain, host of the show. The landscape of pediatric obesity treatment is evolving, and Northwestern Medicine scientists are at the forefront of this research into the most effective ways of treating obesity in children and teens and improving their access to care. My guest today, Dr. Justin Ryder, is a clinical and translational obesity scientist, working on several NIH funded projects focused on understanding how pediatric obesity impacts chronic disease risk and how biology drives weight regain. He's an associate professor of surgery and of pediatrics at Feinberg and serves as the vice chair of research for the Department of Surgery at Lurie Children's Hospital. He joins me today to talk about his recent work, which includes studies of anti-obesity medications in adolescents and advocacy work to ensure equal access of treatments to all. Welcome to the show.  

[00:01:12] Justin Ryder, PhD: Thanks for having me, Erin.  

[00:01:13] Erin Spain, MS: So let's start off this episode by you sort of setting the record straight for everyone and defining obesity. What is obesity?  

[00:01:21] Justin Ryder, PhD: Obesity, in my opinion, and in the opinion of about 35 medical organizations, it's a disease. It's not a behavior. I think of it as a complex gene environment interaction. And when you have susceptible genetics and a toxic environment, like we all live in, it perpetuates obesity. And there's tremendous biological underpinning and etiology of obesity and it's tremendously impacted by our behaviors, but behaviors do not drive weight. It's really the biology.  

[00:01:58] Erin Spain, MS: And this is something that you are passionate about sharing with your providers at Lurie Children's and also fellow investigators. Is that right?  

[00:02:06] Justin Ryder, PhD: Absolutely, I think, you know, from an educational standpoint obesity curriculum and medical training over the past several years has caught on to this, but most pediatricians and adult medical providers were not trained that obesity was a disease. They were trained that it was a behavior and that you could learn how to treat obesity by exercising more and dieting and eating better. That's been our approach, our public health approach, certainly for the last 40 plus years. I don't think it's really worked very well.  

[00:02:37] Erin Spain, MS: So you mentioned obesity. It's a chronic disease that's very common in the pediatric population, impacting approximately 15 million children in the U. S. alone. What are some of the health risks that are associated with childhood obesity?  

[00:02:53] Justin Ryder, PhD: So obesity places children at higher risks for developing a whole host of comorbidities: pre-diabetes, diabetes on the cardiovascular side of things, hypertension, dyslipidemia, hypertriglyceridemia, but also has a strong connection with non-biologically based things like mental health disorders, some of which are biologically based and some of which are not, depression, anxiety, increased suicidal ideation, lower quality of life, and then also musculoskeletal limitations, big bodies are hard on joints. And so, there are a lot of short-term challenges of obesity, but some of these become long term problems as well.  

[00:03:33] Erin Spain, MS: So you mentioned these biological things, these non-biological aspects. Are there specific cultural or societal factors that also contribute to childhood obesity?  

[00:03:44] Justin Ryder, PhD: Yeah, absolutely. Structural racism has definitely contributed to childhood obesity. There is a strong genetic component in certain families and, racial and ethnic groups, so children that come from Hispanic Latino families and Black and African American families are disproportionately impacted by the disease of obesity as well as some of the chronic diseases associated with obesity, especially hypertension and diabetes. And so there's definitely a social and ethnic component to obesity.  

[00:04:19] Erin Spain, MS: What are some of the effective treatments for childhood obesity?  

[00:04:24] Justin Ryder, PhD: The American Academy of Pediatrics put out new clinical practice guidelines last year. It came out in January. They said some things very clearly in there, so I'll distill the 135 plus page document down really clearly. One, obesity is a disease. Two, watchful waiting is a practice that we should not endorse anymore. And what that means is children are not going to grow out of this. Once you develop obesity, the likelihood of you growing out of it is very, very low. And so what we need to do is treat it and treat it aggressively. Anybody who has a BMI above the 85th percentile, which is overweight should be considered for some form of obesity prevention or treatment. And those really fall into three categories. So there's intensive behavioral modification and lifestyle modification. The recommendation is 26 contact hours within a given year. It's very, very challenging for providers to deliver in tertiary care settings like we have at Lurie Children's Hospital, but also in the community and local pediatricians, nobody can really do that. It's really, really hard. Then we have a number of anti-obesity medications, so medications that treat the underlying pathophysiology of the disease of obesity. There's a number of them that are FDA approved for ages 12 and up, as well as several that are approved in adults that they're in the pipeline and being studied in pediatrics. And then we also have Bariatric surgery, and bariatric surgery is also an extraordinarily effective treatment for obesity, but also the underlying other comorbidities that are associated with obesity, bariatric surgery also treats very effectively.  

[00:06:04] Erin Spain, MS: I want to talk more about the weight loss medications, especially the new ones on the market. Tell me about this new class of weight loss drugs and how they work in children.  

[00:06:15] Justin Ryder, PhD: So we're really at an extraordinary time where for about 30 years, we didn't have very many medications that were safe and effective for treating obesity. And if they were effective, the efficacy was rather small, on average 5 percent weight loss. Over the past several years now, we have several medications that have been FDA approved in adults and now a couple that are FDA approved in pediatrics that carry weight losses of 10, 15, 20 percent on average. It's an exciting time to be in the space because we actually have real treatments that really work, that treat the underlying biology and provide individuals with a tool to be successful on their weight loss journey. One of the challenges we have, though, is those medications are extraordinarily expensive. And not a lot of insurances are covering them, and if they are covering them, it's still a burden on patients and families because the out of pocket costs, even with coverage, can be high. Nevertheless it's not to say that those drugs won't come down in cost as more are added to the pipeline. And we have more tools in our toolbox, but it's really shifting and changing the landscape of obesity treatment in both children and in adults.  

[00:07:32] Erin Spain, MS:   And the brand names of those drugs are Wegovy and ZepBound. Is there another one as well?  

[00:07:38] Justin Ryder, PhD:   Yeah. Wegovy, ZepBound, and Saxenda.  

[00:07:41] Erin Spain, MS: But states have been clamping down on coverage of any sort for a lot of these medications. I think just 16 states offer access to anti-obesity medications through Medicaid. Tell me about how big of a barrier this is for patients who want to try these new drugs.  

[00:07:58] Justin Ryder, PhD: Right, and so I think of that as a health equity issue more so than anything else. For instance, at Lurie Children's Hospital, the kids with obesity, 60 percent are covered by Medicaid. And right now, until hopefully next month Medicaid does not allow access to any anti-obesity medications. I mean, 60 percent of the kids that probably reside in Illinois, if we extrapolate and think that, you know, that's a comparable number, have limited access to care. And nationally, there's a number of states, 35 or so, that have no coverage for anti-obesity medication. So any kid that's on Medicaid or an adult that's on Medicaid would not have access to any anti-obesity medications. But there are states that have it approved. It's really unfortunate that they are scaling this back as well. So North Carolina and Texas just announced that they are going to scale back their coverage of anti-obesity medications because it was costing them too much. And so it's really this delicate balance of doing the right thing from a health equity perspective and for treating people with a real disease as effectively as possible and cost.  

[00:09:06] Erin Spain, MS: And you've been involved in advocating for Illinois Medicaid to cover these anti-obesity medications for children and adults. And this has been effective. Tell me about this work.  

[00:09:16] Justin Ryder, PhD: Yeah, so I joined Northwestern and Lurie Children's Hospital in January of 2023. One of the first things I did was use our extraordinarily impactful government affairs office here at Lurie Children's Hospital to help connect me with the right people at Medicaid and within the state to start to have these important conversations about why they should be covering anti-obesity medications, to educate them about the disease of obesity and how having access to these tools and medications is a health equity issue, but also could be cost savings for the state but also the right thing to do to cover these medications. So we've been successful in those efforts and the new class of medications, the GLP-1 receptor agonists will be covered by Illinois Medicaid, hopefully in March of this year.  

[00:10:07] Erin Spain, MS: So once these are covered by Medicaid coverage, what impact do you foresee this is going to have on treatment of obesity in Illinois?  

[00:10:16] Justin Ryder, PhD: Well, right now at Lurie Children's, the majority of kids that are in our weight management clinics are on Medicaid. They have no access to any medications at all, so it could totally change their treatment course and path, because right now it's two buckets. It's lifestyle or it's surgery, and we add a third treatment option, which is going to be very, very powerful. In adults it's going to be the same thing or people that may have been trying to pay for some of these medications out of pocket now will have a pathway to do so that's less financially burdensome to them.  

[00:10:48] Erin Spain, MS: Can you talk a little bit more about why it's important to address this cost issue with the obesity drugs? And there have been some studies that have been published that were looking at the cost effectiveness of this drug, and you wrote some commentary to respond to one of these studies. And you were quite passionate to point out that these drugs are working in teens and that, yes, the cost is something that we need to take into consideration, but tell me some of your perspective on this.  

[00:11:17] Justin Ryder, PhD: Any cost effectiveness study that's done in pediatrics on anti-obesity medications, in my opinion, is premature. Because we only have one year data on these medications, and to really look at effectiveness and cost, you need five, ten year studies because you need a duration of the effects, duration of the costs, and right now we're studying medications that are brand new. They're really expensive, because guess what? The drug companies put hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars to develop these medications and they need to recoup their costs. We wouldn't criticize somebody for having a high price of a new cancer drug that treats cancer. Yet these new anti-obesity medications, everybody's up in arms about the cost of the medications. If insurance would cover them better, maybe we would be having less of this conversation. And then the other challenge is, is when you do a cost effectiveness analysis, they take into account the wholesale cost of the medication, not actually what the consumer direct price is. So you and I, if our insurance covers Wegovy, it's not costing us $1,300 a month, it's costing maybe $100 a month, right? But so if you do a cost effectiveness analysis of a drug that's 1,300 versus Phentermine, for instance, which has been FDA approved since 1958 and costs $5, whether insurance covers it or not, of course, that drug's going to be more cost effective because it's dirt cheap. But it doesn't mean that it's better medication, right? And so any conversation along those lines needs to be balanced with the current environment. Of course, new drugs to market are going to be very expensive, but it doesn't mean that they're not worth using.  

[00:12:59] Erin Spain, MS: It's important to note that longitudinal research is critical for understanding the long-term effects of anti-obesity medications. What gaps in research do you believe need to be filled?  

[00:13:10] Justin Ryder, PhD: Yeah, it's a critical gap in pediatrics and one thing we get criticized for all the time. So the longest duration studies we have in pediatrics for anti-obesity medications are a little over a year. So we definitely need to continue to study these medications long term and we're not talking about one or two years, but five, ten year effects of being on anti-obesity medications. Study real world outcomes of these medications, working with our pharmaceutical company partners to really study the long-term implications both good and bad. So we know what the risks are of being on these medications and do we have a beneficial you know, risk benefit ratio? I fully believe that it'll show just like we've shown with bariatric surgery, that the long-term implications of being on these anti-obesity medications is favorable but we need to understand the risks so that we can educate families, patients, and ourselves on what the implications of being on these medications long term is.  

[00:14:12] Erin Spain, MS: One of the truths about these medications is that this is a lifetime medication, what we know right now. Can you talk to me a little bit about that? And that's a concern that maybe some folks have about starting a child on a medication that may last for life.  

[00:14:27] Justin Ryder, PhD: it's a real conundrum. I think as a medical community, we don't know. We don't know if you need to be on the medication lifelong. There's actually a great study that just came out on Wegovy on what happens if you've been on it for a year and then what happens the next year when you're off of it. And so it was a study that was done from 12, 000 people. So it's a real world outcome study of people that were on Wegovy for a year and then off of it for a year. And what happened was, I think, pretty remarkable. I'm not going to give the exact percentages, but it was 20 percent stayed right about where their weight was. Okay, so they kept everything off. Twenty percent gained a little or 20 percent lost a little. So 60 percent were within sort of a range of where they should be. And then 20 percent were right back to where they started. But then there was also 20 percent who had lost more weight than they had lost. All over the board. We call this heterogeneity or biological variability. And so from a treatment perspective, it's actually kind of nice because what that shows is that there's some people that actually don't need to be on the medication long term or for the rest of their life. There's some people that actually give them that boost, give them that success, allow them to reset maybe their physiology a little bit. And they might be able to keep it off. Maybe that's 40 percent of people. Then there might be another 40 percent of people who, maybe we could down titrate the medication. Maybe they don't need to be on the maximal dose of that medication. Maybe they could be on half the dose that they were on. But then there might be 20 percent that they might need to stay on it for the rest of their life. But we don't really know who those people are, what proportion they are, and with which medications we might be able to do this. So it's a ripe area for study, there's a lot of people that are pursuing that sort of question. It really brings home sort of some precision medicine aspects. And we're just getting to the point where we can start to study that with these new obesity medications.  

[00:16:28] Erin Spain, MS: Well, one area of obesity treatment where we do have a lot of data and information is bariatric surgery. And on a previous episode of this podcast, we had your longtime collaborator, Dr. Thomas Inge, who's a professor of surgery at Feinberg and surgeon in chief in the Department of Surgery at Lurie Children's, he came on and was talking about the teen longitudinal assessment of bariatric surgery study or Teen Labs. Tell me about your collaborations with Dr. Inge on looking at bariatric surgery outcomes in teens.  

[00:16:57] Justin Ryder, PhD: So I've been really grateful for the opportunity and collaboration with Dr. Inge to work on Teen Labs for almost 10 years now, and we're about ready to actually publish our 10-year findings. But what we've shown is that adolescent bariatric surgery is safe and it's effective at treating not just obesity where mean weight loss at a year with both Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy is around 30 to 35 percent weight loss. But also is effective at treating many of the comorbid conditions such as diabetes, pre diabetes, hypertension. It's associated with obesity at about a 70 percent success rate across the board of all comorbidities. And then it's also durable. So out to 10 years, weight loss on average is still 20 percent from where they were to begin with. So better than most of the anti-obesity medications get in one year. And we're showing that from one surgical procedure out to 10 years is quite remarkable. And we still have quite durable resolution of a lot of those comorbid conditions. But there are some risks. So with any study, we need to look at what's good and what's bad. And so there are some risks. So there are some nutritional deficiencies and Teen Labs really help set some of the guidelines on how surgeons should be prescribing vitamins and multivitamins in the post-surgical setting. We're also really interested in bone health, because we don't want to set kids up for early osteoporosis because that's been shown in adults, and we're not necessarily seeing the same signal in adolescents, but we have to continue to study this, and it's really important that we do this work.  

[00:18:34] Erin Spain, MS: Are we going to be able to borrow some of the methods and some of the ways that you've studied bariatric surgery and apply that to these weight loss drugs and the outcomes in kids?  

[00:18:45] Justin Ryder, PhD: I certainly hope so. I hope that the NIH funds us to do a 10, 15 year study of anti-obesity medication to understand the good and the bad so that we can inform guidelines, inform care in an appropriate way with appropriately designed study. Whether or not it's NIH or industry funding, a study of that nature, it's absolutely vital that we study long term outcomes. Both good and bad, so that we can inform clinical practice, but inform also the people that are going to be taking these potential medications for a number of years.  

[00:19:21] Erin Spain, MS: Tell me about some of the projects that you're currently working on that fall into these categories.  

[00:19:27] Justin Ryder, PhD: Yeah, so right now we're really fortunate to have some good support for some of our ongoing research. So we have one NIH funded study that's looking at this question of why is it so hard to keep weight off in kids? So after kids have successfully lost weight, what's the biology and behavioral mechanisms that are driving weight regain. So we have funding to study that in a cohort of adolescents that are in puberty, which is a really strange time period for the kid going through it, for their families, but also from a biological perspective, there's a whole lot going on. We have funding from the NIH to do a study looking at a diabetes medication and seeing if it can treat obesity and what we call steatotic liver disease. So when you have a lot of fat that's infiltrated the liver it's sort of a very difficult area for treatment. And there's a lot of adult studies that are focused on treating NASH or, or, or steatotic liver disease, but there's not a lot of pediatric studies. So we're we have a study going on and we're trying to get funding and actively pursuing a study where we would love to do the first randomized trial of some of the newer anti-obesity medications versus bariatric surgery, because the question always comes up, should I try the new medications that cause maybe 15, 20, 25 percent weight loss, or should I have surgery? We don't know the answer to that question, and we need to have a rigorously designed study to, to be able to provide that evidence base for clinicians, but also patients and families, which therapies might be best, what are the, what's the risk and benefit of those two, and you can't do that until you have a rigorous, randomized clinical trial, and so we're actively trying to get that funded.  

[00:21:15] Erin Spain, MS: What would your hope be for the generation of kids who are being born right now? And they're being born into this environment where obesity rates are high, but new treatments are on the horizon. What's your hope for them?  

[00:21:27] Justin Ryder, PhD: Yeah, so right now about 20 percent of kids in the U.S. have obesity, and we've seen an increase in prevalence from 5 percent in the 1980s to now where it's 20 percent in the 2020s, if you will. I'd like to see in the next 40 years us cut that in half and go back down to 10 percent. If we did that, I would be so happy, I would love to put myself out of a job. How about that?  

[00:21:52] Erin Spain, MS: Well, thank you so much, Dr. Justin Ryder, for being on the show and for sharing all this exciting work that you're doing. We appreciate your time.  

[00:22:00] Justin Ryder, PhD: Thank you.  

[00:22:01] Erin Spain, MS: You can listen to shows from the Northwestern Medicine Podcast Network to hear more about the latest developments in medical research, health care, and medical education. Leaders from across specialties speak to topics ranging from basic science to global health to simulation education. Learn more at feinberg.northwestern.edu/podcasts.  

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Research in Motion: Jie Sun, PhD

April 9, 2024 by [email protected]

I direct a respiratory immunology lab studying pulmonary immunity and pathology in the context of lung infection and cancer. I also mentor undergraduate and graduate student postdoc fellows, as well as a junior faculty in the lab. —Jie Sun, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health

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