Deadline: December 31, 2022.
MD Anderson Cancer Center TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellowship Program 2023
The MD Anderson Cancer Center CPRIT Research Training Program provides fundamental, interdisciplinary, and innovative training in cancer research at MD Anderson. This program is the continuation of a highly successful and comprehensive training program supported by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas. The program includes three tracks: the CPRIT TRIUMPH (Translational Research in Multidisciplinary Program) post-doctoral, CPRIT Graduate Scholar, and CPRIT Summer Undergraduate Research Programs.
TRIUMPH (Translational Research in Multi-Disciplinary Program) Postdoctoral Fellowship provides training in clinical and translational research. The immediate goal of this program is to recruit talented and productive Ph.D. students from top graduate programs to provide continued training in clinical and/or translational cancer research through didactic course work, clinical rotations, and unique, interdisciplinary mentorships. A long-term goal of this program is to produce translational scientists who can be teamed with suitable physician scientists to PI a translational research laboratory.
This is a three-year training program. First year postdoctoral fellows participate in a series of didactic clinical course work offered at the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School (GSBS), MD Anderson Cancer Center, or the UTHealth McGovern School of Medicine and strategically matched clinical rotations, while pursuing research in a basic or translational research laboratory. Second and third year fellows are co-mentored by a basic science/translational scientist mentor and a physician/clinical scientist mentor on clinical/translational research projects. The TRIUMPH postdoc will earn a certificate upon successful completion of the program.
What makes the TRIUMPH program unique is that fellows are not accepted into the program with a pre-determined mentor. We believe that the mentor matching process is important to the success of the trainee and it is not something that can be established during the candidate’s interview alone. As such, once accepted into the program, the fellow will devote the first 4-6 weeks in the program to mentor selection. Each fellow will select between 3-5 of our faculty mentors to meet and interview with. During this time, the fellow will write up a short research proposal for each potential mentor, they will meet with the faculty mentor to discuss the research project and they will attend lab meetings to better familiarize themselves with the lab and its staff. Once this process is complete and the fellow has selected his/her mentor, they will transition over to their mentor’s lab. From there, the fellow will meet with the Program Director and his/her mentor to develop an individualized development plan which will help identify any deficiencies in one’s training and lay the framework for filling in such voids. After the fellow’s research project has been identified, his/she will work with their mentor to identify faculty to serve on their committee. Trainees will meet with their committee once every six months to present their research and keep them appraised on their progress.
