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erikreinertsen3 karma

What drew you both to study cancer in the lab, instead of other diseases? Or other careers?

erikreinertsen3 karma

I'm an MD/PhD student at Emory & Georgia Tech, and can vouch for Dr. Adam Marcus being a boss. I'll try to provide some useful info here.

After finishing college, you can do an MD (4 years) or a PhD (3-8 years, average is 4-5 for a biomedical science field).

For MDs and MD/PhDs, most are encouraged to complete residency training. For hematology/oncology like Dr. Ramalingam, this entails 3 years of internal medicine and 3 years of fellowship in hematology/oncology. When you finish residency and/or fellowship, you can apply for faculty positions at an academic institution where responsibilities might involve seeing patients, performing research (e.g. grant-writing and supervising trainees), and teaching students.

For PhDs, post-graduate training usually involves 1-2 postdoctoral fellowships followed by applying for an academic faculty job.

There are many non-academic careers for MDs and PhDs interested in the scientific enterprise. Biotechnology firms, startups, and consulting are all attractive and meaningful careers.

More articles specific to MD/PhD training:

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2003_10_03/nodoi.9724399671948641535

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2003_10_03/nodoi.16025480221817701387