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Biomedical Graduate Programs: Biology and Chemistry

Cynthia Warrick, PhD RPh

Who will be the next professors for biology and chemistry for students in colleges and universities today?  If we want to advance STEM fields for students of color, we must produce more biology and chemistry professors.  Today I did a search for jobs on HigherEdJobs.com of full-time faculty at 4-year universities in biology and chemistry.  There were currently over 500 positions open for Chemistry professors at the Assistant, Associate, lecturer, post doc, and instructor levels. Running the same search for biology positions produced over 1,000 positions open for biology faculty at every level, and even specializations.  These faculty positions have openings nationwide.  How many of you want to maintain the same schedule as you did in K-12 and College?  Working full-time, practically no nights and weekends, summers and holidays off, and in most public institutions, teacher pensions when you retire.  I decided to get a STEM PhD after working nights, weekends, holidays, and when I opened my own pharmacy: every day.  I saw the lifestyle of the professors in graduate school; they were aging gracefully, showing up to campus for office hours in advance of their classes; helping to grow the next generation of health professionals and scientists.  I marvel at the accomplishments of my former students, and I am very proud of them. Some are business owners, government officials, faculty, and administrators. Many are physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, and list keeps growing, as I continue to mentor young people interested in the biomedical sciences.  I have students with graduate degrees in public health, who attended law school and are not health policy experts and advocates.  Producing more biomedical scientists and healthcare professionals who identify with the culture of their patient populations is critical to producing healthy communities. 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) publishes the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) each year.  The latest data are for 2023 and are located on the NSF NCSES website. In 2023, there were 9,575 Biological and biomedical sciences doctorates awarded.  Out of that number 6,906 PhDs were US citizens or permanent residents, and the remainder, 2,669, were temporary visa holders or unknown. For the Physical sciences, under which Chemistry is classified, there were 5,460 doctorates awarded to 3,176 US citizens and the remaining 2,284 as non-US citizens. Behind Engineering, Biology & Biomedical Sciences has the largest number of doctorate recipients.  Out of the 6,906 PhDs in the biological and biomedical sciences, 716 were Hispanic or Latino, and 346 were Black or African American.  Both ethnic groups combined represent 15% of the 2023 PhDs in the biological/biomedical sciences.  Out of the 3,176 PhDs in the Physical Sciences, 298 were Hispanic and 97 were Black representing 12% of the 2023 PhDs in the physical sciences.

The top HBCUs where African Americans received research doctorates in 2019 – 2023 were: Howard University, Jackson State University, Morgan State University, and North Carolina A&T University.  The top 10 non-HBCUs awarding research doctorates to over 100 African Americans for the same period: University of Georgia, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Louisiana State University, University of Florida, the Ohio State University, University of Maryland College Park, Florida State University, Harvard University, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  These are all great institutions for graduate studies in biology and chemistry; check them out.

Test-Prep Programs: Essential or Extra??

Cynthia Warrick, PhD RPh

The Supreme Court decision that blocks college admissions decisions based on race is making test scores a greater measure for admissions.  In doing so, that places Black, Latino, and American Indian test takers at a huge disadvantage.  According to the US Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics, the mean score of high school seniors taking the SAT and ACT by race in 2023 are listed in the following table. The maximum score on the SAT is 1600 and the maximum score on the ACT is 36.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the mean scores for both SAT and ACT saw a decline. Consistently across 28 years of test score data, American Indian/Alaska Native, Blacks, and Hispanic students have the lowest mean test scores compared to Asian and White students.  This is important information for Black and Brown students with aspirations of careers in medicine, because several studies have found that students’ SAT and ACT scores to be statistically reliable predictors of MCAT scores. Data from the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) on the Total MCAT average score for applicants to US Medical Schools in 2023-2024 shows similar results by race; American Indians and African Americans scored lower on the MCAT (496.3/497.5) compared to White and Asian applicants (507.8/509.1).  For American Indian, Alaska Native, African American, and Hispanic applicants to US medical schools, MCAT test prep will be essential to making their admissions application most competitive, especially if their ACT or SAT scores are lower than Asian and White counterparts. 

When is the best time to start test prep?  My answer is “As Soon As Possible.”  Starting test prep in freshman year will also help students be better test takers in their undergraduate years to help raise their GPA to a competitive level: 3.77 is the average for matriculants in US Medical Schools. 

Which test prep program should be considered?  That depends on time, resources, and areas needed for improvement.  The first step is to find out what is required for Medical School admissions or any of the other health profession schools. For medicine, the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) website under Resources & Services for Premeds, Students, & Applicants. https://www.aamc.org/

The AAMC site has information about medical school admission requirements, applying to medical school, the MCAT, practice tests, and the Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP).  Check lists on how to prepare for applying to Medical School are also located at AAMC. https://students-residents.aamc.org/preparing-medical-school/10-things-do-prepare-applying-medical-school

For test prep programs, Kaplan and the Princeton Review are probably the best known and most expensive MCAT test prep programs.  The best free resource is Khan Academy, which will be available until 2026.  https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat  Working through the 15 sections in Khan Academy while taking the courses in College will help reinforce the content and help you prepare for the demanding schedule of the Kaplan or Princeton Review.  The Noble Academy provides scholarships to help cover the costs of the Kaplan test prep. https://www.mcatking.com/scholarships  Other highly rated MCAT test prep programs that cost less than Kaplan and Princeton are: MCAT School and Blueprint.  U.S. News & World Report, the college ranking company, devotes a webpage on MCAT Test Prep.  https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/mcat-test-prep

Many colleges and universities offer students access to free test prep from Kaplan.  Following up with advisors and/or Deans about these resources and integrating test prep into your regular study schedule will make the difference in getting admitted into medical school and other health professions and biomedical research graduate programs. One thing is for sure, you’ve got to be committed to make and take the time.

Precision Medicine: Not Just the Future, It’s Here NOW!

Cynthia Warrick, PhD RPh

Precision Medicine, also known as “Personalized Medicine,” is a fairly new approach to disease prevention and treatment, with the goal of providing the “right treatments to the right patients at the right time.”  Instead of a one-size-fits-all-approach, precision medicine uses genetic and molecular testing to tailor treatments to the specific characteristics of the individual. Currently, precision medicine is used primarily in cancer and the field of pharmacogenomics focuses on the right treatment for a particular disease based on the patients’ lab and genetics data. 

In precision oncology, researchers are identifying the molecular fingerprints of various cancers and using them to identify more specific and precise treatments at the molecular level, which could be very effective in improving chemotherapy, especially in children.  Cancer immunotherapy is also a form of precision oncology that uses a patient’s own immune system to control, and in some cases, even cure their cancer.  Cancer immunotherapy drugs mimic the natural immune-system molecules to “teach” an individual’s immune system to attack tumors.  Unlike chemotherapy drugs that kill every dividing cell (cancer or non-cancer), cancer immunotherapy is specific to the cancer cells. 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has discovered that many diseases take root in the body long before a patient shows any symptoms, perhaps early in life or even before birth.  NIH recently launched the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, a 7-year research initiative that aims to determine which factors give children the highest probability of achieving the best health outcomes over their lifetimes.  ECHO is currently focused on obesity, brain and nervous system, and lung heath develop, and is following 50,000 children from diverse backgrounds.

Precision medicine is an exciting development from the practice of traditional medicine and there are several biomedical research careers that participate in this groundbreaking effort.  The fields of Genetics, Pharmacogenomics and Environmental Toxicology are the foundational disciplines for precision medicine, and technology has advanced new programs in Data Science, Bioinformatics, and Translational Medicine, which partner with geneticists, pharmaceutical scientists, and toxicologists, to discover personalized medical treatments.  Physicians trained in immunology develop individual treatments prepared by the compounding pharmacies that you see and wonder, what’s the difference between compounding pharmacists and Walgreens and CVS? 

I hope this information will motivate you to seek out more information about precision medicine and the fields that contribute to discovering the drugs that are tailored to the individual patient, not just everyone with diabetes, or heart disease.  You might wonder why it may take a while to identify the best blood pressure medicine and why there are so many different drugs for the same disease. Some patients require more than 6 drugs to treat their chronic diseases. Researchers in precision medicine work to reduce the number of drugs and personalize the treatment. Research can help you understand at an earlier age through genomics, the disease you are predisposed, and how you can prevent the onset of diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s.  According to the NIH, Black Americans are 1.5 to 2 times more likely than Whites to develop Alzheimer’s and related dementias, and Blacks are 35% less likely to be diagnosed than Whites. Most Black patients also have higher rates of hypertension and diabetes, which are potential risk factors for Alzheimer’s and related dementias.

In a previous blog, I highlighted that most PhD programs are fully funded, and that is the case for PhD programs in fields related to Precision Medicine: Genetics, Genomics, Toxicology, Pharmacogenomics, Immunology, Data Science, and Bioinformatics.  The ProFellow.com website provides information about fully funded PhD programs and provides a series on How to Fully Fund Your PhD https://www.profellow.com/tips/how-to-fully-fund-your-phd/  ProFellow lists fully funded PhD programs (pay tuition and stipend for 3 to 6 years) at various institutions in the US and Canada.  For example: The University of Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins, Indiana University, University of Iowa, Texas A&M University and Wayne State University all have fully funded PhD program in Genetics, Molecular Genomics, that also encompass bioinformatics, bioethics, and gene therapy. The area of Pharmacogenomics combines pharmacology, drug development, and genetics, and can be completed through a Master’s program or a post-graduate fellowship after the MD or PharmD.  Most programs are in Colleges of Pharmacy: University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, University of North Texas Health Science Center, University of California San Francisco and University of Pittsburg.

Environmental Toxicology is concerned with the assessment of toxic substances in the environment, and studies how chemicals and biological agents affect the environment and human health.  It combines biology, chemistry, genetics and other fields to understand the impact of these agents on living organisms and environmental systems.  Because of the Environmental Justice movement, PhD programs at HBCUs are interested in the disproportionate impact of toxics on people and communities of color.  Most environmental toxicology graduate programs are found in medical and pharmacy schools. The following HBCUs have funding for students toward the PhD in Environmental Toxicology: Florida A&M University, Texas Southern University, and Southern University of Baton Rouge, LA. Other programs to consider: Texas Tech University, University of California – Riverside, University of Mississippi, and Michigan State University.

Data Science and Bioinformatics graduates are in high demand in government and industry. Bioinformatics is a scientific subdiscipline under genetics and genomics that involves the use of computer technology to collect, store, analyze and disseminate biological data and information.  Data science involves the study of large, complex data sets that arise from various types of research projects.  With respect to genomic studies, expertise in quantitative scientific disciplines such as bioinformatics, computational biology, and biostatistics is important in presenting the outcomes from research in these fields. The University of Delaware and Washington University in St. Louis have PhD programs in Biomedical Informatics & Data Science, that combine these areas for skills in translational science, taking research from the lab (bench) to the community (bedside).

Exploring biomedical graduate programs in any of these areas will fill critical faculty roles in higher education, research in industry (pharmaceutical and biotech companies), and in government (FDA, CDC, NIH, EPA, etc.).

Getting In Medical School and other Biomedical Research Programs

Cynthia Warrick, PhD RPh

According to the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) data on the undergraduate institutions that supply 15 or more Black or African American (Alone or In Combination) applicants to U.S. MD-granting medical schools in 2024, the top 3 institutions were Howard University, University of Florida, and Xavier University of Louisiana.  The number of Black applicants from these institutions represent only 2 percent of all Black applicants.  That means that it’s not the institution, but the competitiveness of your application in the pool of applicants to a particular school.  When I speak with prospective students from HBCUs, their sights are often set on the HBCU medical schools or graduate and professional programs.  And because of Howard, Meharry, Morehouse, and Charles Drew’s notoriety, they receive numerous applications, making admissions to those schools more competitive. When I served on admissions in pharmacy and public health programs, we could literally line up applications by GPA and Test Scores and select the top 100, leaving thousands of students to seek other programs. Now that Bloomberg has gifted over $100 million to these treasured programs, entry will be reserved to the best test-takers with the highest GPAs. In 2024, the average MCAT score for matriculants to US medical schools was 511.7 and the average GPA was 3.77.  The mean MCAT for Black applicants was 497.5 and GPA was 3.39.  Of the 52,577 applicants to US medical schools, 21,131 were White, 12,600 were Asian, and 4,672 were Black.  The number of applicants who matriculated was 9,534 White (45% of White applicants), 5,901 Asian (47% of Asian applicants), and 1,845 Black (39% of Black applicants).

For pre-health and biomedical research majors, participating in research experiences and other STEM training opportunities will significantly improve their application, especially with the requisite test score and GPA. It’s good to get letters of recommendation from research mentors who can attest to your enthusiasm, responsibleness, laboratory and critical thinking skills, other than just the STEM faculty at your home institution. There are numerous summer research and training programs, and now is the time to apply, with most deadlines in January or February. Most major universities with medical schools and graduate programs offer summer research opportunities on their website.  Pharmaceutical and Biotech companies also offer summer internships in research, and most federal agencies also have opportunities on USAjobs.gov. The 2025 Department of Energy (DOE) Scholars Program application is open with a downloadable Oak Ridge Institute for Science & Education (ORISE) app, making it easier to apply for the 2/15/2025 deadline. https://orise.orau.gov/doescholars/  

The Department of the Navy's HBCU/MI Student Internship Program (SIP) Application Web Portal is now open for students to apply for paid summer 2025 internships. Due to program expansion, students can apply to 10 diverse internships programs with wider focus areas including engineering, medical to include dentistry and nursing, law, computer science, data science, cybersecurity, business, logistics, biology, and chemistry. The deadline is November 8 and the application portal can be accessed at: https://www.hbcumi-sip.com/

The CDC / National Center for Environmental Health Research Fellowship provides an opportunity for students in Atlanta to gain paid research experience during the academic year and summer.  More information about research participation at the CDC can be found here: https://orise.orau.gov/cdc/applicants/default.html

The Oak Ridge Associate Universities (ORAU) has a Beginner’s Guide for Students Entering their First Research Internship Program that includes professional development modules and other training resources to better prepare students for success. : https://www.orau.org/internships-fellowships/stem-professional-training-modules.html

The American Heart Association (AHA) HBCU Scholars program provides paid research experiences during the academic year at approximately 25 HBCUs.  The Scholars will present their work at a research symposium and attend the AHA annual meeting; another great experience to highlight on a graduate and professional school application.

Of course, research experiences are also very competitive.  The key to success is applying for everything!  You can also create your own summer biomedical research experience by using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) RePORTER search tool. https://reporter.nih.gov/  NIH-funded researchers have opportunities to support high school, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as junior faculty with Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research.  Applications from the Principal Investigator (PI) can be submitted between October 1^st and May 31^st and usually takes 12 to 16 weeks for a decision.  That means for a summer research experience beginning on June 1st, the application should be submitted by January 6^th.  There is a YouTube video that provides information on how to use the NIH RePORT.  Searching by institutions of interest and using keywords for the research topic can help limit the number of funded research.  The research supplement provides a stipend and funding for travel with possibilities to attend conferences related to the research activity. 

Another summer undergraduate research fellowship that I helped to establish is the Salk Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at the Salk Institute in La Jolla (San Diego), California.  That deadline is November 17^th. https://www.salk.edu/about/diversity-equity-inclusion/summer-research-opportunities/

This fellowship made me wish I was an undergraduate again. To see the Pacific Ocean every day at a world class research center in Southern California is a great opportunity to not only improve research skills, build your resume and graduate application, and expand your biomedical research network.