UMass Chan Medical Scientist Training Program welcomes competitive new class of future physician-scientists

The 10 new MD/PhD students in UMass Chan Medical School’s Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) reflect the program’s growing national reputation and highly competitive admission process.

The UMass Chan program, which has 78 students in total, is one of fewer than 60 MD/PhD programs nationwide supported by MSTP funding from the National Institutes of Health. To date, 31 percent of eligible PhD training students in the program have received a predoctoral fellowship award (F30 or F31) from the NIH, including eight awards in the past academic year alone.

Read Pukkila-Worley, MD, professor of medicine and MSTP director,  said, “These students are incredibly talented. They have diverse backgrounds and interests which enrich our intellectual environment by virtue of the different experiences they bring to UMass Chan. We were very fortunate to recruit this group into our program.” 

When applying to UMass Chan’s MSTP program, MD/PhD students have the option to also apply to the Population-based Urban and Rural Community Health (PURCH) track, primarily based at the UMass Chan-Baystate regional campus in Springfield.

New MD/PhD student Oluchi Ukairo is a PURCH student from Marlborough who completed her undergraduate degree in psychiatry at UMass Amherst. Her first lab rotation at UMass Chan was in the lab of Craig Ceol, PhD, associate professor of molecular medicine, studying skin conditions like melanoma and vitiligo.

An EMT and personal trainer, Ukairo is interested in pursuing a career in pediatric oncology or pediatric emergency medicine. She said the MSTP has allowed her to combine her interests in medicine, research and community health.   

“It’s been an amazing experience. I think being in the MD/PhD program and in the PURCH track, I have an opportunity here to blend many of my passions and interests with community work, community health advocacy, research and medicine all into one,” Ukairo said. “I’ve already experienced the great value of the program.”

Fellow first-year student Eric Sakkas brings a background in computational biology and genetics research to the program. Before coming to UMass Chan, Sakkas spent several years working as a research assistant at Boston Children’s Hospital, working with whole-genome sequencing data.

While applying to MD/PhD programs, Sakkas was drawn to the lab of Zhiping Weng, PhD, the Li Weibo Chair in Biomedical Research and chair and professor of genomics & computational biology, which uses computational methods and machine-learning techniques to analyze large-scale genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic data to better understand diseases. 

Sakkas, of Weston, earned his undergraduate degree in computer science and molecular biology and biochemistry from Wesleyan University. After completing a six-week summer rotation in the Weng Lab, he continued working part-time this fall, analyzing gene-expression patterns in people with and without disease and determining if there are specific genes expressed in abnormal ways.

“I’ve got some preliminary data that’s exciting and has allowed me to continue working in Dr. Weng’s lab,” Sakkas said. “I have big aspirations about leading my own lab in the future. I’ve had great mentors, like Dr. Weng, and some day I’d like to provide the same opportunities that she and other lab leaders I’ve worked with have provided me.”

Sakkas, Ukairo and the other first-year MD/PhD students will complete two years of medical school before transitioning to pursue their PhD. After successfully defending their doctoral thesis, they will return to medical school for the final two years of training.

Dr. Pukkila-Worley, who took over leadership of the MSTP in 2025, said, “A career in medicine and science is personally and intellectually satisfying and involves two inherently complementary disciplines. Our goal is to communicate the joy of being a physician-scientist to our students and to emphasize the importance of our career, both in the care of individual patients and in shaping the future of medicine, policy and science.”

Last month, the first-year students were presented with pins during MSTP’s annual Pinning and Advancement Ceremony to recognize the start of their medical school training.

Merin MacDonald, MS, MSTP program manager, said events like the Pinning and Advancement Ceremony are part of the program’s effort to celebrate student accomplishments and support an academic community excited about the MD/PhD journey.  

“We encourage input and feedback from our students so that we may learn about what their experiences have been like across all years of the program, from applying to the program to completing their dual degree,” MacDonald said. “The students really appreciate the opportunity to be involved. They are excited and engaged.”

During the pinning and advancement ceremony, 12 students were honored for entering the PhD phase of their training, 11 students were commended for defending their doctoral thesis and 10 students were celebrated for passing their qualifying exam.

Two students in the fourth year of medical school, Claire Branley and Julianna Buchwald, will be inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society this fall.