Many graduate medical education programs at UCSF are working to facilitate clinical and translational research opportunities for residents who plan to make research a part of their careers. The Clinical and Translational Science Training Hub has established a research elective and other initiatives to help promote residents' career development. The goals are to create opportunities for all residents to gain a foundational understanding of clinical and translational research methods and evidence-based medicine skills, and to inspire and facilitate residents to pursue future opportunities for career development as investigators.
The program is comprised of training, career development, courses, funding opportunities for clinical research, and travel to present findings at scientific meetings; and an annual research symposium.
RRTP Ambassadors
The Resident Research Training Program has appointed ambassadors for each residency program. The ambassadors will provide guidance and information to residents interested in pursuing research training. Please click on a department's name for information on that program.
Designing Clinical Research Course
Designing Clinical Research for Residents (Epi 150.03) is a course that requires 50% protected time and is taught twice a year, in August and September, in a one-month format. Modeled after the highly successful Summer Clinical Research Workshop of the Training in Clinical Research (TICR) program, the elective will lead residents through the essential components for writing a clinical research protocol, developed around their own clinical research question. The tangible product of the course is a 5-page clinical research protocol. The residents will attend bi-weekly group lectures and small resident-only seminar groups led by core faculty for the CTST resident initiative with additional faculty participating to meet resident enrollment.
NOTE: It is very strongly recommended for those applying to Resident Research Funding and Resident Research Travel to have successfully completed the Designing Clinical Research (DCR) course or equivalent didactic training in clinical research.
We are limiting DCR registration to the first 40 residents.
There are a number of courses in clinical and translational research available to residents. For those residents with at least one year of protected time for research, we encourage enrollment in the Advanced Training in Clinical Research Program Certificate Program (ATCR). Residents pursuing ATCR without departmental support should consult CTST to determine the availability of tuition assistance.
Mentors of the Year Award
2024-2025: Julien Cobert, MD nominated by Kristen Vossler
"Since my intern year, Dr. Cobert has encouraged and supported me in scholarly work at the intersection of critical care and palliative care. He has challenged me to engage in all aspects of research, ranging from grant writing to complex statistical modeling to editorial writing. He has entrusted me to lead multiple projects, such as an invited editorial on palliative care metrics in Chest and a manuscript on personal pronoun use in ICU notes, currently under review. Beyond these opportunities, he has also included me in several additional lab projects and introduced me to others with similar research interests. He has helped me not only with individual research projects but also in shaping a vision for my career. As the first person in my family in medicine, I cannot overstate how transformative his mentorship has been in helping me define an academic niche, understand the skills and steps to get there, and navigate networking. In addition to professional development, he has been a consistent source of personal support and guidance. He knows me first and foremost as an individual and has helped me grow into the best version of myself. This level of trust and encouragement is not unique to me; he brings the same energy and commitment to several of my co-residents who have gone on to publish, present at national conferences, and successfully match into competitive fellowships. Overall, his impact on my early career has been extraordinary, and his hard work deserves recognition!"
2024-2025: Laura Huppert, MD nominated by Samantha White (Fisch) and Nira Krasnow
"Dr. Huppert has been the most incredible mentor. Through her guidance on this project, she has provided me with the opportunity to write and submit an IRB, design a data collection database, learn about multi-institutional collaboration, learn important skills in statistics and data analysis, in addition to manuscript writing and figure design. Furthermore, she not only provided me with such valuable learning opportunities but also ignited my passion for clinical research. She has been so generous with her time and provided me mentorship not only in research but also in life and my career. Working with Dr. Huppert has empowered me to feel confident in my abilities to think critically and contribute meaningful research."
"Dr. Huppert is a true model of an outstanding mentor and sponsor. When I first came to her last year searching for research opportunities, she identified multiple projects that aligned with my interests and my residency schedule/timeframe, and which would allow me to have a meaningful role with the opportunity to build new skills. Throughout the year, she has made time to meet frequently to answer any questions that come up – I always leave our meetings feeling excited, supported, and clear-headed about my next steps, which is a true testament to her leadership. Dr. Huppert is constantly thinking of ways to support my budding career – some examples include sponsoring me to go to conferences to present our work, build knowledge, and meet experts in the field; taking the time to write letters of support for various career opportunities; providing the funds for new data analysis software so that I can learn a new research skill; and inviting me to spend time in her clinic so that I can build my clinical skills as an aspiring oncologist. I have learned a remarkable amount in the past year working with Dr. Huppert – in addition to being an incredible researcher and clinician, she is an unmatched educator, advocate, and mentor. I wholeheartedly nominate her for the RRTP Mentor of the Year."
In addition to announcing the Mentor of the Year Award recipients, the RRTP would like to acknowledge the following mentors who were nominated for the award this year. Each mentor has made significant contributions to the research and career path of their mentee. The RRTP would like to express our sincerest thanks and gratitude to the mentors below, as well as to the many outstanding mentors at UCSF that make this program possible.
Maria Castellanos, MD, nominated by Rachel Kim
Sara Lewin, MD, nominated by Sabrina Chen
Brian Anderson, MS, MD, nominated by Jonathan Kramer-Feldman
Anneka Hooft, MD, nominated by Christina Stiles
John Rose, MD, MPH, nominated by Greta Davis
Jae Ho Sohn, MS, MD, nominated by Yannan Yu
Hao Nguyen, MD, PhD, nominated by Kevin Shee
Nasim Sobhani, MAS, MD, nominated by Carrie Crook
Andrew Krystal, MD, nominated by Jack Berry
Robert Rodriguez, MD, nominated by Francesco Sergi
UCSF does not use race, gender, sex, or other protected categories or proxies for protected categories in the selection process.