Neurology Physician-Scientist Training Program

The UTSW Department of Neurology Physician Scientist Training Program offers comprehensive training for aspiring physician-scientists pursuing careers in neurology. The program features longitudinal mentorship, cross-campus engagement with physician-scientist peers, dedicated funding, and structured career development opportunities. Trainees also gain extensive experience presenting their research within the Department of Neurology and at campus-wide seminars—preparing them for success in securing their first independent faculty position.

The UTSW Neurology PSTP provides a robust pipeline to prepare eligible neurology residents for a career in research while simultaneously gaining superior clinical training. Successful applicants to our program will automatically be offered a position in the UTSW Neurology fellowship program of their choice.

I knew I wanted to continue to do research in the gene therapy field in my career. This track gave me a year of dedicated lab time during PGY-2 that helped me dig into a full project, which I can now manage from time to time throughout the rest of my residency.

The one year of protected laboratory research time during my neurology residency was instrumental in advancing my work on profiling tau folds in tauopathies. The unwavering support and structured guidance from both my mentor, Dr. Marc Diamond, and the research faculty in the neurology residency program have laid a strong foundation for my future as a physician-scientist studying neurodegeneration.

Having research time early in residency made it possible for me to generate pilot data. I was able to use that data to obtain internal/external grants to keep things active while I was on service.

The support of UTSW Neurology's residency under the leadership of Dr. Lauren Phillips is unparalleled. Dr. Phillips fully understood our needs as budding scientists/engineers while training to become neurologists and molded our schedules accordingly. Her personal encouragement and support to ensure we excelled in whatever we wanted to do was invaluable. I do not think I would have found this confidence and strength anywhere else.

My career goal is to become a physician-scientist at a top-tier academic institution such as UT Southwestern to be able to advance the field of neuroimmunology. Understanding the pathophysiology of autoimmune responses will hopefully provide patients with MS and related disorders with novel treatments that can significantly impact their disease course and prevent disability.

 

 

Highlights

26+

Faculty Mentors

1 in 3

Faculty with NIH Funding

Program Structure

Protected Time

Residents customize their schedules by integrating protected research time around their core clinical training requirements. Trainees get up to seventy research weeks over the course of four years — up to 14 weeks during PGY1, 11 weeks during PGY2, 15 weeks during PGY3, and 30 weeks during PGY4.

Longitudinal Mentorship
Residents meet in person with the Director of Physician-Scientist Development, Dr. Evan Noch, four times a year to discuss research and career goals. During these 30-minute meetings, Dr. Noch will also provide guidance on submitting and presenting abstracts at the appropriate time. Additional resources include grant-writing assistance, workshops, two group outings with all resident-researchers, an institutional membership to the American Junior Investigator Association, and the K award writing program (SEAK).

Travel Funds
Yearly education funds from the Neurology Department include $1,000 per year to present at national meetings. The OBI Travel Grant program offers up to $2,500 to support travel and presentation of original work at a conference.

Annual Resident Research Day
This special event brings together faculty, mentors, and trainees for a full day of scholarly exchange through speaker sessions and poster presentations. Graduating residents and fellows showcase the culmination of their research, receiving faculty feedback on originality, study design, significance, and independence of work. Presentations emphasize critical unmet needs, methodology, data analysis, and thoughtful discussion of results, limitations, and future directions. A highlight of the event is the Fred Baskin Young Investigator Award, a prestigious national honor recognizing early-career researchers dedicated to advancing clinical science.

Faculty Mentors & Labs

Our faculty mentors have current federal research funding, expertise in either wet-bench, clinical, or translational research, and a history of successfully guiding trainees to meet their career goals. Mentors cover a breadth of areas, providing the opportunity to conduct cross-collaborative, niche research.

View Faculty Mentors

Current PSTP Residents

Several of our current resident researchers have been funded through various mechanisms. Residency program alumni have also gone on to receive further federal funding post-graduation.

View Resident Researchers

Discover UT Southwestern

• A National Leader in Academic Medicine

  UT Southwestern is an internationally recognized academic medical center, known for excellence in education, research, and clinical care. With four degree-granting schools—the Medical School, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, School of Health Professions, and the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health—we train nearly 4,000 students, residents, and fellows each year. With over 25,000 employees and an annual operating budget of $5.5 billion, UT Southwestern is one of the largest and most impactful academic medical centers in the country. Our faculty and trainees deliver outstanding care at UT Southwestern’s Clements Jr. University Hospital and outpatient clinics, as well as its key partner institutions, including Parkland Health, the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Dallas VA Medical Center. Each year, we provide more than 5 million outpatient visits, care for over 120,000 hospitalized patients, and handle 360,000 emergency room visits.

• In Pursuit of the Next Breakthrough

  Research is the cornerstone of our mission. Each year, we support nearly 6,000 active research projects, with over $767 million in funding from the NIH, foundations, state programs, industry partners, and philanthropic donors. Recognized globally, UT Southwestern ranks #4 in the world among healthcare institutions in the Nature Index for publishing high-impact research that shapes the future of medicine. Our distinguished faculty includes 6 Nobel Laureates, 26 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 21 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators.

  The O’Donnell Brain Institute is supported by a $1 billion campaign that fuels its commitment to advance brain research and clinical care. Our 2,100-plus faculty and staff tackle the most complex problems in the brain. The Institute supports multidisciplinary approaches through a variety of grant and scholar programs that provide funding, mentoring, education, and tools for researchers at all levels. We are committed to building partnerships among basic and clinical scientists to achieve our mission of providing the best patient care possible today while creating a future of better treatment and prevention through discovery and innovation.

• Collaborations and Affiliated Joint Programs

  You have the opportunity to join any research program at UT Southwestern or affiliated joint programs with UT Dallas

  • O'Donnell Brain Institute Departments
  • Basic Science Departments
  • O'Donnell School of Public Health
  • Clinical Informatics
  • Advanced Imaging Research Center (AIRC)
  • Center for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases (CAND)
  • Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center (SCCC)
  • Texas Institute for Brain Injury and Repair (TIBIR)
  • Bioengineering
  • Behavioral & Brain Sciences

Find the Right Research Funding for You

Questions?

neurologyresidency@utsouthwestern.edu to learn more about the research track.