NJ ACTS Collaborative Graduate Programs

The Rutgers-Princeton MD/PhD Program: For the last decade, the Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Princeton University have jointly sponsored an MD/PhD program. One of the strengths of this program is the unique combination of facilities and resources across the two universities including the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Child Health Institute of New Jersey, the Environmental and Occupational Health Institute, the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute.

Joint Program in Biomedical Engineering: New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and the Rutgers Graduate School of Biological Sciences jointly administer a program in Biomedical Engineering that emphasizes an integration of engineering and the life sciences to address complex problems. Students are admitted to either institution and receive the same degree with a joint diploma.

Federated Program in Computational Neuroscience:  New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) faculty from the Biomedical Engineering and Rutgers Neuroscience departments serve as mentors in this training program.

Computational Psychiatry PhD Programs: Rutgers and Princeton are creating a new graduate training track in Computational Psychiatry that will expand and enhance the existing PhD training program within the Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI). This program will leverage the expertise of The Rutgers-Princeton Center for Computational Cognitive Neuro-Psychiatry (CCNP) which combines strengths of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and RBHS’s University Behavioral Health Center and Brain Health Institute to use computational psychiatry (machine learning) to characterize and map psychiatric disorders to the spatial function of the brain.

Fellowship Programs

Opportunities in research sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Summer Research Fellowship Program are available to medical students in their first and second years at RWJMS. Under the guidance of faculty, students conduct short-term research projects in selected areas of basic and clinical investigation. The objective of this program is to further acquaint students with scientific methodology and enhance their analytic and laboratory skills.

The Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowship Program: Offered by the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, this highly competitive and distinguished fellowship program is an industry-based training program which partners with the leading pharmaceutical and bio-pharmaceutical companies. The program is designed to further students experience in the pharmaceutical industry through work experience and clinical research. The fellowship is designed to provide hands-on training in functions ranging from coordinating clinical trials to liaising with regulatory agencies and research organizations, while preparing pharmacists for challenging positions within the pharmaceutical industry.

Research Fellowships in Translational Cancer Research: The program has been designed to provide candidates with the highest quality training and research experience so that they will be competitive in developing research careers in academia, government, and the private sector. The program integrates the highest quality of basic science laboratory studies with a fundamental understanding of the unique requirements of clinical translation of the discoveries.

Faculty Development

Mentoring Committee: A RBHS-wide mentoring committee serves the needs of junior faculty of all disciplines in all RBHS schools and institutes. The goals of the mentoring team are to assist faculty with career advancement, improve faculty recruitment and retention, increase diversity of faculty, increase faculty satisfaction, improve productivity and career satisfaction for all faculty, and become a national center of excellence in faculty mentoring. In May 2016, the committee organized the first annual day-long faculty mentoring symposium. The next annual symposium is planned for spring 2017 and will focus on mentoring women faculty members and developing leadership skills in academic medicine.

Faculty Training Program in Clinical Research: A one year training program for dental school faculty members interested in clinical research has been established in the Sjogren’s Syndrome Clinic (SSC) at the NIDCR’s Gene Therapy and Therapeutics Branch. The SSC is located within the NIH hospital (Clinical Center). Successful applicants must hold a DDS/DMD degree, or equivalent, and have an active license to practice dentistry in any of the 50 states. Individuals will be full participants in ongoing clinical trials in the SSC, as well as participate in the development of new protocols directed at novel biological treatments for salivary gland diseases. Optional graduate level supplementary formal coursework is available if desired.