Monday, February 2, 1998
Caltech, UCLA join for new program
SCIENCE Collaborative effort between schools will let medical
students to cross over into other disciplines
By Matt Grace
Daily Bruin Contributor
Dr. Daniel Petrasek’s mother thinks her son is crazy. After four
years of medical school he wants to go back – but this time he
wants a doctorate.
There are others, like Petrasek, who now have a new
opportunity.
Last week, the scientific communities of the UCLA School of
Medicine and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech),
gathered at the chancellor’s residence to celebrate the creation of
a new joint training program for medical scientists.
The collaboration aims at pooling the resources of both schools,
in an effort to produce a new breed of physician/scientist for the
21st century.
UCLA is a world-renown academic medical center, and Caltech is
international leader in biological research and biotechnology.
"It’s the first step in bolstering the cooperation between two
great institutions," said David Baltimore, president of Caltech.
"It opens up additional avenues of training for our
physicians."
Initiated last year after two Caltech students came to the UCLA
Medical Center to learn more about medical research, the program
allows physicians to cross over into other disciplines, said Dr.
Linda Demer, chief of cardiology at UCLA.
The partnership accommodates physicians receiving their medical
degree from UCLA by financing their pursuit of a doctorate while
they work on their specialty training – in anything from
mathematics to nuclear physics.
Both institutions settled on an undisclosed financial agreement,
in which the cost of tuition and salary for the physician in
training would be covered, Demer said.
"These are people who could go out to make a lot of money in
private practice," Demer said, "but instead go into research."
Attending Caltech, as opposed to graduate programs within UCLA,
allows for cross-disciplinary dialogue with different scientific
communities.
The program aims to solve the problem of "in-breeding," which
happens because most institutions train their medical faculty
within the same division in which they received clinical
training.
"Bringing new techniques and new knowledge enhances the entire
research community," Demer said.
"Physicians come to Caltech because of a strong desire to
investigate the interfaces between the life sciences and other
disciplines," Baltimore said. Likewise, graduate students at
Caltech interested in medicine now have the opportunity to take
classes at UCLA and become involved in medical research.
The school of medicine wants trainees to stay and be successful,
by giving them the tools, background and credentials necessary to
obtain competitive research grants, Demer said.
Physicians and scientists need these attributes in order to
compete for National Health Institute (NHI) grants – most medical
research grants are funded by the NHI.
Until now, physicians interested in completing a doctorate or
post-doctoral fellowship have been involved in the Specialty
Training and Advanced Research (STAR)
program at UCLA.
The 59 physicians currently enrolled in the STAR program, as
well as medical students from the UCLA Medical Scientist Training
(MST) program now have the option to attend Caltech. MST students
trains highly motivated students for careers in the biomedical
sciences.
Petrasek is the first UCLA physician and STAR program member who
is pursuing his doctorate at Caltech.
"It has allowed me to complete my medical education and become a
scientist," Petrasek said.
There is no other way for him to combine his medical interests
with his interest in mathematics. His growing frustration in not
being able to treat certain diseases motivated him to explore
mathematics as a source for a solution.
"Mathematics is an unused treasure," Petrasek said. And he hopes
that by studying mathematics he can create novel solutions to
treating diseases.
It is this pursuit of knowledge and combination of disciplines
that will lead science into the new millennium.
"We are seeing the catalyst that will energize the Southern
California region," Baltimore concluded.
"We have the opportunity to shape the future of America," said
Chancellor Albert Carnesale. "This partnership responds to what can
be done, and what should be done."