Post-MSP training (elective) : 

After MSP training, students may find that their understanding of human disease has motivated them to acquire a deeper understanding of histology, pathology, current diagnostics, and therapeutic development.  Histology/Pathology education is provided by Histology (taken in the first quarter with second year medical students or in the second quarter with School of Pharmacy students), Human Disease (a pathology survey course developed for Molecular Pathology and School of Pharmacy majors), and Mouse Models for Human Disease. Students that take both Histology and Human Disease will become experts in evaluating the phenotypes of knockout mice they produce in their research careers. A comprehensive education in current diagnostics is provided by Introduction to Clinical Pathology & Diagnostics, which describes assays currently used to diagnose practically every disease seen by the UCSD hospitals (Veterans Administration Hospital, The Thorton Hospital, and the VA Medical Center) and is offered as core training for medical students and residents in Clinical Pathology, as well as Clinical Pathology Case Conference & Journal Club, which focuses on the diagnosis of interesting cases admitted to the VA, Thornton, or Hillcrest Hospitals, and a variety of weekly, disease-specific Pathology Case Conferences. Participating programs will offer elective credit for these courses.  A table of credits given by the different graduate programs for these courses will be inserted below soon.

Following MSP training, students may become more interested in both novel and traditional avenues of therapeutic development.  The potential of stem cells as novel cellular therapeutics is discussed in Stem Cell Biology. A course in the comprehensive approach to computer-assisted drug design is also offered.

Through additional training in pathology, diagnostics, and therapeutic development, MSP graduate students will be uniquely positioned to launch careers that blend efforts to understand the molecular basis of disease, to conceptualize and develop diagnostic and therapeutic tools, and translate these tools into the clinic.