Master of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR)

In response to national efforts to improve the quality of education in clinical and translational science (CTS), Emory University and Morehouse School of Medicine each developed Master of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR) degree programs. The purpose of these MSCR programs is to provide didactic and mentored clinical and translational research training.  The target audience for the MSCR program includes predoctoral trainees (medical students, PhD students), postdoctoral trainees (physicians in training including residents and fellows, PhD postdocs), and junior faculty (with MD and PhD degrees) at the Georgia CTSA partner institutions (Emory University, Morehouse School of Medicine, Georgia Tech and University of Georgia).

In order to achieve excellence in the 21st century, investigators undertaking clinical and translational research must couple their knowledge of medicine and biology with analytic sciences including statistical reasoning, decision analysis, probability theory, analytical epidemiology, and informatics. They must also have an understanding of the principles of evidence-based medicine, bioethics, clinical trial design, regulations involving human subjects and animals, scientific and grant writing, big data, mentoring, leadership/management, team science, innovation and technology transfer, community engagement and health disparities in clinical and translational research, and responsible conduct of research. All of these aspects are taught via the Emory MSCR degree program supported by Georgia CTSA or the Morehouse School of Medicine MSCR degree-training program supported by an NIH R25 grant.

Morehouse School of Medicine MSCR Program

MSCR required curriculum

MSCR 761 Introduction to Clinical and Translational Science [CTS] (2 credits)

This course introduces the fundamentals of human subjects research in CTS. It begins with the building blocks of hypothesis development, population and study sample selection, defining study measures, and power and sample size calculations. The course then conducts a broad survey of observational and experimental study designs, including systematic review and meta-analysis. Throughout the semester the team science aspect of CTS is emphasized with students working together in groups in organized class and on-line activities.

MSCR 530 Analytic Methods for Clinical and Translational Research I (3 credits)

Epidemiologic methods are covered for studying the determinants and distributions of health outcomes in human population with an emphasis on hypothesis formulation; causal inference; experimental vs. observational research; measurement; detection of interaction; study design (e.g. cohort, cross-sectional, case-control); evaluation of the sources and direction of bias; control of confounding factors; random error (frequentist vs. Bayesian approach); and epidemiology in clinical settings (screening, diagnosis, and therapy).

MSCR 500 Introduction to Biostatistics (3 credits)

Provides an introduction to applied biostatistical data analysis. Topics covered include numerical and graphical descriptive statistics, one-and two-sample inferences for means and proportions, simple and multiple linear and logistic regression, and one- and two-way analysis of variance. After completing the course, students are expected to be able to independently and rigorously implement the covered methods and to interpret results for standard analyses.

MSCR 533 Data Management (2 credits)

Provides an introduction to concepts in data management and analysis using SAS statistical software on personal computers.  Topics covered include importing data, in-stream data entry, variable manipulation, subsetting, concatenating and merging data sets. Data management principles for maintaining data quality are presented.  The course is coordinated with MSCR 500, and SAS procedures used to implement the statistical methods from that course are also presented.  After completing the course, students are expected to be able to independently manage small or moderately large data sets and to analyze the data using SAS.

MSCR 591 Community Engagement and Health Disparities in Clinical and Translational Research (1 credit)

Led by Emory University (EU) and Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) faculty, this course is an introduction to the concepts, methods, and issues involved in community engaged research with communities. Special emphasis is given to social and behavioral science concepts and methods; principles and historical roots of community engagement; clinical and translational research partnerships, multidisciplinary research collaborations; ethical issues; and practical considerations in planning, implementing, evaluating, and disseminating community-engaged research. Case studies and course projects are shaped to accommodate students with diverse interests in health disparities, communities, and/or translational research. Students are assumed to have a general research and clinical background, but the course emphasizes research theory and concepts with a goal to encourage thoughtful and effective community-based research collaborations.

MSCR 595 Health Services Research (1 credit)

This course provides students with an understanding of the nature, methods, scope, magnitude, and impact of Health Services Research (HSR). Students gain a better appreciation for the importance and relevance of HSR in improving healthcare delivery as well as key tools employed in HSR and areas of funding. Classes are designed to demonstrate the broad scope and multi-disciplinary nature of HSR by providing lectures from experts on a wide variety of topics that also provide practical examples of HSR.

MSCR 534 and MSCR 534 (Lab) - Analytic Methods in Clinical and Translational Science  II (3 credits)

Continuation from analytic epidemiology and data management courses in the first semester. Aids students in developing analytic skills necessary to model data collected from experimental and observational studies in order to assess the role of multiple risk factors in association with health outcomes. The focus is on linear regression, logistic regression, and survival analysis. The goal is to provide a foundation for understanding the multivariable nature of human health events and develop the critical reasoning to apply these skills towards an overall analytic approach.

MSCR 536 Analysis of Clinical Research Data (2 credits)

Provides hands-on experience in the analysis, interpretation, and presentation of clinical research data. Topics covered include methods for data collection, data management and data cleaning in SAS, overview of descriptive and multivariable analysis techniques, strategies for addressing missing data, and the writing and communication of science in the format of a peer-reviewed manuscript and an oral, in-class scientific presentation. The goal is for the student to reach a level of skill with data collection, data analysis, and data presentation to begin and successfully complete the analysis and presentation of thesis research data.

MSCR 509 Overview of High Dimensional Data Analysis (2 credits)

To introduce modern bioinformatics techniques to researchers and practitioners, including statistical and computational techniques for the analysis of high dimensional data. This course will emphasize the statistical and computational concepts behind these techniques, and illustrate their applications to the medical field.  Often, these illustrations will take the form of reading and discussing results from recently published medical studies dealing with high dimensional data.

MSCR 520 Clinical Trial Design (2 credits)

MSCR 520 is an introduction to fundamental and quantitative issues in clinical research and clinical trial design co-taught by a biostatistician and a clinician. Traditional and non-traditional study designs including aspects of experimental design and analysis are covered in this course. Study design, sample size, randomization, repeated measures, interim analyses, missing data and interpretation of results are emphasized. Major topics in clinical trial design including good clinical practice and challenges and successes associated with clinical trials conducted at Emory are highlighted. Students participate in class sessions with oral presentations on the advantages and disadvantages of a selected innovative clinical trial design.

MSCR 592 Clinical and Translational Science Colloquium (1 credit)

Seminar-style course that covers a wide array of practical issues in CTS including: research administration and grants management; federal funding process; IRB and HIPAA; Conflict of Interests; Legal Aspects of Translational Research; Drug Discovery; Industry interactions (drug discovery and device development); Multidisciplinary research and Team Science; Mentor and mentee training; Translational Research Informatics, Health Services and Implementation Science Research.

MSCR 593 Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues of Responsible Clinical and Translational Research (1 credit)

This course prepares students to engage in theoretically and practically based discourse and decision making in ethical issues involved in clinical and biomedical research.   The course will survey a variety of ethical issues occurring in basic and applied research settings and analyze approaches that seek to prevent or resolve them. Classes will primarily consist of the faculty and students leading discussions around various articles and case studies.

MSCR 594A&B Scientific and Grant Writing (2 credits)

The goal of this class is to help you become an excellent grant writer. Some students will work on grant proposals that will be submitted to funding agencies such as the NIH while others will write a ‘practice’ grant proposal that will be of the quality of an actual competitive grant proposal. The final product for this course is a grant proposal with all the required components outlined in the table below. You will receive feedback from the instructors on all your writing throughout the course. Certificate students may submit a pure cell and/or animal-based research grant proposal, but it must include details on the translational significance of the proposed work for potential human investigation. Certificate students may also submit a proposal that includes human subject research as part of or as the entire proposal, if they choose. MSCR students MUST submit a grant proposal that includes human subject research as part of or as the entire proposal. The grant may thus also include cell/animal research components. NIH defines translational/human subject research as studies involving data derived from identifiable human subjects, and thus can include databases, blood/tissue biobank material, work with cells isolated from identifiable humans, including primary culture, etc. The grant proposal cannot be based solely on work with human cell lines or animal model/primate research.

MSCR 598 Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) in CTS Research (1 credit)

The course will teach and expose students to fundamental data workflow principles universal to application of big data science in CTS.  The elements of this workflow comprise the Big Data Pipeline and concern the generation, acquisition, processing, analysis, and presentation of Big Data.  The application of this workflow will be taught through three extended case studies in the fields of clinical health informatics (electronic medical records), public health informatics, and “omics” with three corresponding projects to engage students in the acquisition and organization of data.

MSCR 596 Advanced Data Management in R – ELECTIVE (2 credits)

This course is an elective that KL2 scholars, TL1 trainees or other MSCR or CPTS students. This elective introduces the “R” statistical programming language with a focus on data management tasks (importing, cleaning, reshaping, transforming, and exploring data) and reproducible statistical analysis. R packages for the creation of publication-quality figures and tables are introduced, further extending the student’s capabilities to create a complete and reproducible data-processing pipeline from raw data to presentation and publication. Statistics available in “R” along with packages for logistic and time-to-event modeling are also covered.

MSCR 599R - Investigative Mentored Research Thesis (4 credits)

All MSCR participants conduct a mentored thesis project in clinical or translational research (PhD graduate students will complete a PhD thesis on a CTS related topic in lieu of the master's thesis).  The thesis requires developing a hypothesis-driven research proposal to investigate a clinical/translational research question, followed by data collection, analysis of data and presentation of results (both oral and written in a format suitable for publication in the medical literature). It should incorporate appropriate procedures and skills learned in formal course work. The research thesis may focus on a therapeutic clinical trial, interventional study, observational study, an epidemiologic or molecular epidemiologic study, a clinical evaluation program (health services, outcomes, etc.), or a translational research project. Students provide an oral presentation to the Georgia CTSA Research Education Executive Committee and submit a written thesis which must be approved by the MSCR program and Dean of the Emory Laney Graduate School. MSCR students are strongly encouraged to present their thesis data at a national meeting and publish their thesis data in a peer-reviewed journal. The data may also impact and serve as the foundation for a career development grant submitted to NIH (e.g. F32, K-series) or a foundation.

Non-credit requirements include an Institutional Review Board (IRB) rotation, a monthly CTS Journal club as well as training in leadership, team science, mentorship and entrepreneurship.

Mentored Clinical Internship for PhD Graduate Students and PhD-level Scientists in the MSCR Program: 

Predoctoral PhD graduate students typically have little or no practical experience interacting with patients who have diseases relevant to their research interests. To address this gap, the program will arrange for individualized mentored clinical experiences for trainees who will work with one or more clinical research faculty who successfully perform funded multidisciplinary CTS at the Georgia CTSA institutions (e.g. Emory, MSM or UGA clinical research sites). This rotation will be tailored to be relevant to the trainee's research interests and can occur in the inpatient and/or the outpatient setting. The clinical mentor-investigator will provide practical training to the trainee, including how to interview and recruit patients for CTS studies, and bedside teaching of pathophysiologic concepts. The internship will occur over a course of the first year of PhD/MSCR training. The experience will include a minimum of 20 half-days of clinical exposure at clinical research sites. The variety of experiences that can be arranged include attending outpatient clinics with one or more physician-investigators; observing diagnostic or therapeutic procedures (e.g. imaging, surgery, physical examinations) in tertiary- and community-based research sites; state-of-the art clinical analytical technologies; shadowing multidisciplinary inpatient and/or outpatient teams caring for patients with disorders or diseases of interest; working with clinical research coordinators in conduct of ongoing clinical trials; and mentored examination of histologic sections of human tissues in the setting of a clinical pathology department. The goal is to provide the non-physician trainee with a new set of experiences relevant to both their understanding of disease and their research interests and to illuminate the impact of high-quality CTS in clinical outcomes of individuals with disease.

MSCR Class Schedule

Emory MSCR: Who Should Apply

The Master of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR) degree is designed for predoctoral trainees (medical students, PhD students), postdoctoral trainees (physician and PhD postdocs), and junior faculty (MD, PhD) at Emory University (Emory), Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), and the University of Georgia (UGA) who have a commitment to a career in clinical and/or translational research.

MSM-based predoctoral and postdoctoral MSCR candidates apply at MSM to matriculate through MSM’s MSCR didactic and mentored research curriculum.

Predoctoral trainees from Emory (medical students, MD/PhD students, and PhD graduate students), MSM (medical students, MD/PhD students, and PhD graduate students) Georgia Tech (PhD graduate students) and UGA (PhD graduate students ) may apply through the Georgia CTSA TL1 Core program.

Predoctoral trainees currently supported by other NIH or federal T-level or F-level training grants are not eligible for the Georgia CTSA TL1 program, but may apply to the MSCR program supported with stipends and tuition costs provided by their specific training grants.

Postdoctoral trainees from Emory (resident or fellow physicians, PhD postdocs), MSM (resident or fellow physicians, PhD postdocs), Georgia Tech (PhD or equivalent training) and UGA (PhD, or equivalent training) may apply through the Georgia CTSA TL1 Core program.

Postdoctoral fellows currently supported by other NIH or federal T-level or F-level training grants are not eligible for the Georgia CTSA TL1 program, but may apply to the MSCR program supported with stipends and tuition costs provided by their specific training grants.

Emory MSCR: Application Instructions (for non TL1 and KL2 applicants)

If applying to KL2 please use instructions on KL2 application webpage.
If applying to TL1 please use instructions on TL1 application webpage.

All application components should be uploaded to online submission system (click to start). Once you have started submission by entering your name and email address, you will receive a confirmation email with the link to your MSCR application. You can use this link to upload and update your submission files. Please share your submission link with your Department Chair, Lead mentor, Co-lead mentor (if applicable), and Advisory committee members (if applicable) to upload Letters of Support.

1) Cover page (save link as document).

2) Personal statement (up to 2 pages maximum) to include the applicant’s training and research background and career goals, including how this training program and training afforded by the mentoring team will specifically enhance career development. Use Arial 11 font and 1.0 inch margins, single-spaced.

3) Curriculum vitae of the applicant in the form of an NIH-style predoctoral or postdoctoral biosketch. NIH Biosketch forms, instructions and examples are at this website: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm.  Note that the NIH-style biosketch for both predoctoral trainees and postdoctoral fellows requires information on any prior research support awarded to the applicant, as well as prior scholastic performance (undergraduate and graduate school attended, science course titles, other course titles, year course take and final letter grade). Helpful slides for completing the NIH Biosketch are here. 

4) Current NIH-style biosketch of the proposed Lead Mentor. The personal statement of the lead Mentors’ biosketch must reflect commitment to the mentee and his/her specific project. The lead Mentor must be the Principal Investigator (PI) or a Multiple PI (MPI) or Program Director on at least one active federal grant at the time the applicant will begin the program (late August of each calendar year). The Lead Mentor’s grants can be from any federal agency, for example, the NIH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA), Department of Defense (DOD), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), among others.

5) Current NIH-style biosketch of co-mentors or Advisory Committee member(s). The personal statements of these must reflect commitment to the mentee and his/her specific project. The co-mentor team typically consists of 2-3 additional faculty members who will provide training in CTS to the applicant, in addition to the Lead Mentor.

6) NIH-quality research project MSCR thesis proposal involving human subjects, and may include human data from available databases is required.

The project must include the following required elements (use Arial 11 font and 0.5 inch margins). Information on preparing the required elements is provided, with examples, in the instructions for a predoctoral NIH F31 application at the NIH National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases website. Required elements are: 

a) Title of proposal and investigators.  The applicant should include the title of the proposal, the applicant’s name and the name of the Lead Mentor (and their affiliation and title).

b) Abstract/Summary (250 word maximum) of the overall research project.

c) Specific Aims (one-page maximum—counts as part of 6 page limit) section that includes: a summary of the project (rationale/background, innovative aspects, brief overview of planned research and study population, including accessible datasets), a hypothesis statement, and 2 to 3 Specific Aims of the research project that briefly outline how each Aim will address the hypothesis/hypotheses.

d) Research Plan (up to 6 pages) that includes the following sections: Significance (1-2 pages), including any relevant preliminary data of the Lead Mentor and/or applicant; Innovation (up to 0.5 pages) that outlines the novelty of the project to the field; and Approach (3.5-4.5 pages) which details how the specific Aims are going to be addressed. The Approach section can also include preliminary data and must include information on the proposed research methods, study population (including inclusion/exclusion criteria and details on any human subject databases that may be used), a statistical analysis plan (developed in conjunction with a biostatistician, as needed), including a power analysis, if applicable, a brief description of the mentoring team and their expertise, and a comment on expected results/pitfalls/solutions with regard to the executing the Specific Aims and interpretations of study results.

e) Bibliography focused/no page limit with citations in numerical order from the Research Plan.

f) Protection of Human Subjects section (no page limit, see NIAID F31 example link above). This section outlines hazards/risks/discomforts to research subjects, if applicable, and methods to be employed to mitigate such risks.

g) Inclusion of Women, Children and Minorities brief statement should be provided which outlines any exclusion of these groups and the rationale in the research project.

h) Facilities section (no page limit, see NIAID F31 example link above) which outlines the intellectual, educational and physical resources available to the applicant through the Lead mentor, mentoring team and institution relevant to the proposed project.

i) Equipment section (no page limit, see NIAID F31 example link above) which outlines any equipment available to the applicant through the Lead mentor, mentoring team and institution relevant to the proposed project.

j) Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) statement (0.25-0.5 pages) which outline required in-person and other training (e.g. on-line) RCR training. Onc source of in-person RCR training is the 1-credit Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues of Responsible CTR MSCR 593 coursed required of both MSCR and CPTR trainees.

7) Letters of recommendation including:

• letter from the trainee’s proposed faculty Lead Mentor. The letter from the Lead Mentor, must indicate willingness to serve as the applicant's research mentor for the MSCR thesis or CPTS programs. The Lead Mentor’s letter should also include a brief outline of the proposed research project and indicate that he/she has reviewed the applicant's proposed research project summary prior to its submission.  The Lead Mentor’s letter should indicate an understanding that their attendance will be required for the thesis defense presentations by the applicant to the Georgia CTSA Research Education Executive Committee. The mentor's letter should indicate that he/she will provide feedback regarding the Independent Development Plan (IDP) and meet with a Georgia CTSA Research Education leadership mentor with the mentee at least yearly to document academic progress. In addition, as each Georgia CTSA TL1 Core-funded trainee will be required to submit an external federal grant within one year of starting the program, the lead Mentor’s letter should confirm his/her commitment to assist in the trainee's required grant application for extramural federal funding.
• letter from co-mentor (if applicable);
• additional letter of recommendation from the candidate’s Division or Program Director, Chair, or Dean of Students;
• letter from Advisory Committee members (if applicable).

8) Application fee in the amount of $75.00 payable to Emory University (if your application is successful). If you are currently enrolled at Emory University, no application fee is charged by the University. Deliver to the program office (see below). 

9) Original transcripts from every secondary institution you have attended except Emory. Once you are accepted into the program, your transcripts can be sent by the issuing institution directly to the Laney Graduate School.

Please use link to online submission system to upload your Emory MSCR application files.

Mentors: Each trainee must identify a Lead Mentor who is an established, independently funded clinical and/or translational investigator at one of the collaborating institutions (Emory, MSM, Georgia Tech or UGA). Lead mentors should be established and successful clinical and/or translational investigators with a strong mentoring track record. Generally this means that the lead investigator must be a federally funded investigator (e.g., NIH, CDC, VA, DOD, USDA, AHRQ, or CMS). A faculty mentor may only serve as lead mentor for a single applicant. A strong letter of support from the Lead Mentor indicating their willingness and commitment to serve as the trainee's Lead Mentor, including providing support as needed in order to complete the MSCR project should be included in the candidate's application. All trainees must have mentored clinical and/or translational research training under the direction of their Lead Mentor. Additional co-mentors or Advisory Committee members are permitted; however, there must be a single Lead Mentor that is identified. Multidisciplinary mentoring teams are strongly encouraged, as is having representation from at least two of the Georgia CTSA partners on the mentoring team or Advisory Committee (Emory, MSM, or Georgia Tech, UGA) if appropriate. Important points regarding the Lead Mentor’s letter of support are noted above.

Selection process:  Applications to the Georgia CTSA MSCR program will be reviewed by a review panel or “study section” that follows an NIH grant-style review format. The review panels will include faculty from all of the partner institutions including members of the Georgia CTSA Research Education Executive Committee. In addition, other ad hoc members will include relevant faculty, NIH K-grant or equivalent federally funded junior faculty, and other faculty members who have received NIH funding. The Director, Henry Blumberg, MD, will chair the review panels.  Guidelines to avoid conflict of interest will be utilized.  Selection criteria include: 1) potential of the candidate to develop into a successful clinical/translational investigator; 2) evidence of commitment on part of the applicant’s Lead Mentor, multidisciplinary mentoring team, and the experience and success of the lead mentor in mentoring trainees, as well as strength of the required letters of support; 3) the quality and feasibility of the proposed hypothesis-driven research project and the training/career development plan and 4) diversity to encourage training of candidates from different departments and from under-represented minority groups.   Each application is scored using a NIH-style scoring system (1 to 9 scale).  Written reviewer evaluations and summary of the discussion of the study section are provided to all applicants.  The applicant will be notified if any further information is needed before a decision about admission into the program can be made. The Georgia CTSA Research Education Executive Committee and Emory's Laney Graduate School make the final decision regarding admission into the MSCR program. The Georgia CTSA Education Program office will issue a letter of acceptance.

The MSCR didactic course curriculum is expected to be completed within one year and over a 1-2 year period for trainees supported by T-level or F-level training grants. The MSCR degree process includes a mentored research project that is should be completed within 2 years of entering the program. 

PhD or MSCR dual degree track: This dual degree track provides the opportunity to integrate clinical and translational research training into established doctoral degree programs in the Emory Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (GDBBS), the Emory Laney Graduate School, the Emory Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH), the Emory School of Nursing (SON), the joint Emory-Georgia Tech Biomedical Engineering (BME) program, other Georgia Tech engineering programs, the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) PhD Biomedical Sciences program and the UGA and PhD predoctoral programs. The MSCR program for predoctoral students is designed to begin after the required rotations, courses, and qualifying examinations are successfully completed (e.g. generally beginning after the second or third year of graduate school). The MSCR program is expected to add only one year to the typical doctoral graduate program training period. A process outlined in the TL1 overview and application web site selects all MSCR applicants.

Core Didactic Training: PhD or MSCR dual degree candidates will complete the 30 credits of the MSCR required core curriculum (see below) while maintaining four research dissertation credits per semester in their graduate programs. The MSCR thesis will not be required of PhD/MSCR or MD/PhD trainees because of their PhD dissertation. The afternoon courses (generally 1 PM-5 PM) Monday-Thursday will need to be taken during the course of a full academic year (late August through early May); trainees will have a limited amount of time during this period to also pursue a clinical and/or translational research project. Requirements of the graduate school of the trainee’s respective institution must also be completed satisfactorily.  

PhD or MSCR Program Expectations: The goal of this integrated training is for graduates to pursue long-term careers in multidisciplinary clinical/translational research as leaders and members of multidisciplinary research teams in academic, industry, or other settings. This includes preparing trainees to be competitive for Assistant Professor positions at excellent academic medical centers and universities or colleges as well as positions at federal agencies such as NIH, FDA, and CDC and for clinical/translational research careers in industry, foundations and in government agencies. These expectations will be facilitated by professional development activities during training that includes didactic classroom training. Predoctoral MSCR trainees are expected to submit a career development training grant (e.g. NIH K-series or F31 or F32 grant, National Science Foundation, or foundation grants) as part of the required MSCR scientific and grant writing course.

During the MSCR training period, PhD students will continue to participate in programmatic responsibilities of their graduate program including seminars, ethics training, close interaction, and meetings with their mentors and research supervisory committee, etc. The MSCR program MSc degree is awarded concomitant with PhD graduation.

MD/MSCR dual degree track: This dual degree track provides the opportunity to integrate clinical and translational research training into established medical school MD programs at Emory and MSM. MSCR training for medical students occurs only via the Georgia CTSA TL1 Core program, as outlined in TL1 overview and application web site.

MD/MSCR Program Expectations. The goal of this integrated training is for physician-scientists to pursue long-term careers in multidisciplinary clinical/translational research as leaders and members of multidisciplinary research teams in academic settings. Although medical students from Emory and MSM are taking a one-year leave of absence from medical training for MSCR training, will continue to participate in programmatic responsibilities of their medical program including seminars, ethics training, close interaction, and meetings with their mentors and research supervisory committee, etc. The MSCR program MSc degree is awarded concomitant with MD graduation.

Postdoctoral fellow MSCR degree track. This track provides the opportunity to integrate clinical and translational research training into postdoctoral training for physicians and non-physicians with doctorate degrees (e.g. MD, PhD or equivalent). MSCR training for postdoctoral fellow occurs only via the Georgia CTSA TL1 Core program or non-TL1 training programs (e.g. NIH T- and F-grants), as outlined in TL1 overview and application web site.

Questions: We encourage interested MSCR candidates to contact the Georgia CTSA education program leadership for questions and assistance with the application process. Questions on the application process can be directed to Rachel Hardison, Georgia CTSA Research Education Programs Assistant Director (rachel.hardison@emory.edu or 770.927.7914).  For questions, especially technical issues, or problems with the online submission website please contact Alexey Kurbatov (akurbat@emory.edu).

Download the MSCR Brochure