daolso

Good to hear! When it comes to research I want to be involved mainly in the development of new stem cell therapies (and if they make it to clinic, trials). You're absolutely right, I don't want to be spending my time running gels or doing cell culture, but I do want to have enough time to write grants, mentor students, and research and design new cellular therapies.

That being said; I could probably apply the tissue engineering paradigm to any subspecialty (regenerating spine after trauma, regenerating brain after tumor removal, etc). And I really want to be a surgeon! I have a few more years in the MSTP before I would be applying, so still some time to figure it out. Anyway, thanks for the reply!

Thanks for doing this. What kind of research do you do? Do you think an MD/PhD student interested in maintaining an active basic/translational lab should even consider neurosurgery as a specialty?

I have no aversion to hard work, I love neuroscience, and I want to be a surgeon, but I also want to continue research in tissue engineering and stem cell biology for the rest of my career. Do you think it is possible to do 50/50 research/neurosurgery (less? more?) at an academic institution? What is the minimum hours/week you would need to maintain your skills? What if you sub-specialize (into something like spine or neuro-oncology)?