BRTP common entry for Ph.D. study

Back row from left — Abigail Hielscher, Carmen Troncoso, Suzanne Clabaugh, Emily Baily, Kerry Brader, Jamie Gilmore, and Jonalee Amato, staff assistant. Center row — Clara Chao. Front row — Sarah Clayton, Ethan Mann, Nicholas Bechtold and Aaron Schumacher.

Students in the 2005-2006 Biomedical Research Training Program (BRTP) recently took part in a three-day orientation process to help them select their area of interest for Ph.D. research.

The BRTP, in its fifth year of existence at UNMC, is a common entry program for Ph.D. study in the College of Medicine’s five basic science departments and in the Eppley Institute. The purpose of the program is to recruit highly talented prospective graduate students to enhance UNMC’s research mission. The program is still undergoing rapid growth and has been fortunate in receiving applications from more than 60 schools in 26 different states, said Daniel Monaghan, Ph.D., chairman of the BRTP.

Students entering the BRTP have the opportunity to rotate through any of the more than 115 research laboratories in the five basic science departments (biochemistry and molecular biology; genetics, cell biology and anatomy; pathology and microbiology; pharmacology and experimental neuroscience; and cellular and integrative physiology), in affiliated laboratories in the departments of internal medicine, surgery, and ophthalmology, and in the Eppley Institute.

The BRTP program provides students wider opportunities for choosing a laboratory in which to pursue Ph.D. research and a broad-based first year of training in multidisciplinary biomedical research. Before the end of the first year, students select their thesis research laboratory and degree-granting program for continued study.

This year’s BRTP students are (with undergraduate school):
Emily Baily – Chadron State College
Nicholas Bechtold – Briar Cliff University
Kerry Brader – Doane College
Suzanne Clabaugh – University of Nebraska at Omaha
Clara Chao – University of California-Riverside
Sarah Schrad Clayton – University of Nebraska at Omaha
Jamie Gilmore – Wayne State College
Abigail Hielscher – Chadron State College
Ethan Mann – Chadron State College
Aaron Schumacher – University of Nebraska at Omaha
Carmen Troncoso – University of New Mexico