Science Careers Blog

Johns Hopkins University is on the lookout for new recruits to enroll in their Interdisciplinary Graduate Training Program in Nanotechnology for Biology and Medicine (NBMed). Funded by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and run out of the university’s  Institute for Nanobiotechnology (INBT), the program is geared to people looking for specialized training at the interface of nanoscience and medicine. The program’s Website touts the potential for graduates to establish careers "creating new diagnostics and therapeutics to detect, treat, cure, and prevent human diseases."

"The NBMed program ... will produce a new generation of scientists and engineers who will pioneer new scientific discoveries and the creation of new technologies," said NBMed program director Denis Wirtz, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and the INBT associate director, in a quote relayed to Science Careers by Mary Spiro, Media Relations officer with the Institute for NanoBioTechnology.

One of the features that sets the program apart is that students don’t obtain a degree specific to this niche. Instead they continue to work with one of a range of participating departments including Physics, Biomedical Engineering, or Molecular Biology. Students receive specialized training in nano-bio, but their degrees are awarded by their home departments.

Participants conduct lab rotations in and out of their primary disciplines, spending time with investigators in a variety of relevant fields. "Students can select a lab for rotations from among more than 150 faculty associated with the INBT," Wirtz says. "A surprising feature of the rotations is that students view this as a tremendous opportunity and are frequently the catalysts in binging together two faculty with complementary research interests. Several new collaboarations have been established through students serving as the 'matchmaker'."

Currently, 7 students are enrolled in the 3-year-old program and administrators expect to pick 3 or 4 new students in the new year. Students earn a stipend, but program administrators refused to disclose the amount of the stipend since, Spiro said, next year's stipend could change.

Prospective students apply simultaneously to both a participating department and the institute. Interested students can contact INBT Education Program Coordinator Ashanti Edwards at aedwards@jhu.edu. 

                                                             - Andrew Fazekas, Canadian Correspondent