Why MIDIS?

The problem The doctoral training required to become a biomedical scientist costs roughly $40,000 per year. At prestigious institutions like the University of Michigan, the federal government provides much of the support for a graduate student's early years of training. Because international students are ineligible for this support, international applicants have largely been excluded from admission to the best biomedical training programs, even though their academic qualifications may meet or exceed those of domestic applicants. The Michigan Infectious Disease International Scholars fund seeks support from concerned individuals and non-governmental organizations to provide biomedical research training to citizens and residents of disease endemic nations whose personal convictions and experiences make them unusually dedicated to the war on infectious disease. Even relatively modest contributions towards training expenses can affect the decision of whether or not one of the many qualified international applicants can be admitted to a course of study.

The need In the 1970s, it was widely believed that infectious disease was no longer of critical importance to Americans. Small pox had been eradicated, vaccines kept polio in check, and antibiotics had made death by infection very rare. But by 1994, AIDS was the leading cause of death for Americans age 25 to 44. Although biomedical advances have subsequently made HIV infection a more manageable condition for thousands of Americans, an effective vaccine has yet to be developed. To eliminate AIDS and other diseases of global importance, we must gain more fundamental understanding of human immune responses, of the basic biology of pathogen replication, and of the molecular interactions between microbes and their hosts.

Biomedical training Who will make these discoveries? As the great French microbiologist Louis Pasteur noted, “Chance favors the prepared mind”. Scientific progress does not occur in a vacuum, and the great discoveries in medicine are made by those who have been well trained.

The typical biomedical scientist working in the pharmaceutical industry or in an academic or private research laboratory pursues a long and arduous training path. Either part time during undergraduate studies at a research university or by working in a laboratory after graduation, future research scientists must receive hands-on technical experience in biomedical research. An individual with demonstrated prowess at the laboratory bench and superior academic credentials will then apply to graduate school. Graduate training for the PhD degree typically takes about 5 years. After receiving the PhD, students who have made major research findings will then compete for a postdoctoral position. After about 3 years of postdoctoral training, the best trainees apply for faculty positions or to lead industrial or other research teams. Typically, it is only after an additional 7 years that the young investigator will be awarded tenure: a permanent job and a salary similar to those of his high school friends who decided to forgo college. Clearly, a career in biomedical sciences is not suitable for those who want to get rich quick. Most scientists love their work because of the satisfaction that comes from new knowledge and from the belief that their efforts will benefit mankind.

Unfortunately, some of the world’s brightest young minds are prevented from embarking on this career path. Because students who are not US citizens or permanent residents are ineligible for the federal graduate student training funds that support much of the biomedical research at prestigious institutions like the University of Michigan, international students are routinely denied the opportunity to gain biomedical research training. The interval between completion of an undergraduate degree and postdoctoral studies represents a bottleneck that too often restricts the ambitions of trainees in infectious disease from the most severely affected nations. It is this problem that we seek to rectify.

Although science might seem like an objective endeavor and diversity among its practitioners shouldn't matter, increasing the participation of developing nations' scientists just might hasten the eradication of infectious diseases that affect these nations. Paramount, however, it to nurture and encourage the creativity and dedication of the next generation of individual scientists, regardless of where they happen to have been born.