A new grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will support students pursuing both their doctoral degree in physical therapy and a PhD in bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh.
The Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT)-PhD in Bioengineering program, a collaboration between the Swanson School of Engineering and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS), has been awarded a NIH T32 training grant. Codirected by Rakié Cham, professor of bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering, and Patrick Sparto, professor of physical therapy, SHRS, the five-year grant offers annual funding for students to integrate a physical therapy education with bioengineering research training, preparing clinician-scientists to be leaders in rehabilitation research.
“Whether our trainees ultimately go into physical therapy or bioengineering in their career, this program allows them to become better clinical researchers,” Cham said. “A physical therapist with strong technical skills can tackle the right research questions, and an engineer with clinical training will better understand what’s relevant to patients.”
Students with a background in bioengineering begin the dual-degree program by pursuing their DPT at SHRS in the Department of Physical Therapy, then transition to a research lab of their choice to obtain a PhD in bioengineering. Throughout both the DPT and PhD, trainees funded by this grant will complete integrated clinical and bioengineering research training, including mentored research, lab rotations, seminars, clinical practice and teaching experience.
“This is a great opportunity for both faculty and students,” Sparto said. “The potential pool of PhD advisors expands because advisors know upfront that a student already has two years of support, allowing more freedom for our students to pursue their research interests and helping our faculty plan ahead when taking on a new student.”
T32 institutional training grants provide critical mentoring and financial support to predoctoral students seeking to gain practical research experience and advance their careers while pursuing their doctoral degree. The program will support three to five predoctoral trainees per year, and each trainee will be eligible for up to three years of support spanning their transition from DPT to PhD study, including one year of support during their DPT education and two years of their PhD studies. The NIH T32 grant provides funds to offset the cost of stipends and tuition for each student trainee and provides additional funds to enable trainees to travel to scientific conferences.
“We have a wonderful group of participating faculty with a variety of diverse research programs and experience that students can go into, and our alumni have gone on to be really successful in their careers and with postdoctoral fellowships,” Sparto said. “I think these outcomes have really helped to demonstrate the power of funding a program like this to benefit our students.”
Program applicants must meet admission requirements of both the DPT and PhD programs, and at minimum have a bachelor’s degree in engineering or a closely related field. To apply for the training grant, prospective students should apply directly to the program through the Physical Therapy Centralized Application Service. Before students submit their application, they should contact Patrick Sparto.
