The following courses have been developed or adapted for the UAB Hughes Med-Grad Fellowship. These courses are intended to reduce the intellectual distance between bench and bedside through instruction of medically-relevant, patient-oriented information by top physician-scientists. The didactic experience will provide a conduit for matching fellows with world-class mentors for thesis projects in contemporary disease-based research.
All UAB Hughes Med-Grad Scholars will matriculate through one of the existing interdisciplinary Ph.D. programs to fulfill their degree requirements.
An example of the courses and pathway for matriculation of Hughes Med-Grad Scholars is below. For example, Student A might pursue a project in neurodegenerative disease, select a thesis project in neuronal cell death, and enter the Neuroscience pathway in the Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB) Core where curriculum and advanced electives in neurobiology are offered. Alternatively, Student B might choose cardiovascular disease and enter the Integrative Biomedical Science (IBS) Core curriculum because of its focus on organ systems biology.
Modeling Human Disease
A case-based, clinical pathological, conference-style course that will present relevant physical exam and laboratory data key to the diagnosis and clinical management of specific diseases. Fellows will team with mentors to present and discuss patients. A seminar will follow, led by a prominent researcher in the field, to highlight the molecular basis of the disease as well as the mechanism for diagnosis and treatment.
Phenotyping Human Disease
This course will cover disease processes, such as cancer metastasis, that will form the basis of modules for instruction in modern methodology (e.g., histological basis of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, use of gene chips to identify global changes in gene expression, transgenic strategies targeting epithelial cells, introduction of imaging modalities to track metastatic cells, and visualizing lung/bone metastasis in human tissue).
Quantitative Methods
This course will introduce statistical concepts and methods with an emphasis on applications in medicine. It will provide an intellectually broadening pedagogical experience by combining elements of many disciplines and introducing statistical concepts through real life examples.
Vocabulary in Clinical Research
Sessions will cover fundamental information on clinical research topics including hypothesis generation and testing; biostatistics; epidemiology and population research; clinical trials; ethics; overviews of behavioral, prevention, outcomes, and surgical research; the IRB and oversight of research; and critical review of literature.
Vocabulary in Drug Discovery Research
Provides instruction in modern approaches to drug discovery. Coordinated by SRI and the UAB Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering, this team-taught course will follow the pipeline of drug discovery from target selection to FDA approval.
In order to promote student interaction and ongoing fellowship in the HMG Program, all students will participate in a Seminar Series/Journal Club each summer of their graduate training. This course will meet once per week during the summer and consist of guest speakers, student research presentations, and journal club presentations of current research topics.
