About the Program
Learn about the program
The Interdisciplinary Training Program in Metabolism (ITPM) is bolstered by a strong institutional infrastructure with participating centers and institutes, including the UCSD-UCLA Diabetes Research Center (DRC), Broad Stem Cell Research Center, Cardiometabolic Research Center, and NIH-sponsored Centers of Research Excellence in Sex Differences and Women’s Health in Metabolism. ITPM mentors direct highly competitive research programs securing over $50 million per year in NIH funding. UCLA boasts one of the most successful physician-scientist training pipelines centered around the Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) Program. STAR offers intensive research training, often leading to a PhD degree, combined with clinical fellowship/early faculty support. The STAR program interfaces with the highly successful UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), and both programs are directed by ITPM faculty ensuring continuous mentoring through a vertical pipeline.
Over the past decade, the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) has invested over $25 million in infrastructure, capital equipment, and new academic hires in metabolism-related fields. Strengths of the ITPM program include:
- established pool of highly trained and talented MD and PhD fellows.
- accomplished and caring mentors, including early- to mid-career and underrepresented minority (URM) faculty performing basic, clinical, and translational research.
- leading-edge didactic lectures, seminars and symposia related to diabetes, obesity, and metabolism.
- thoughtful training in Biomedical Research Integrity and career development.
- major commitment from the DGSOM and Department of Medicine at UCLA (DoM) to support the ITPM mission.
In summary, the creation of the ITPM leverages unique resources at UCLA to generate premier cohorts of highly trained physician-scientists driving important discoveries and leading-edge evidence-based clinical care to improve human metabolic health.