UPitt vs Penn State

wgmcp101
Wed, 02 Apr 2014 02:31:40 +0000

While it is true undergrads won’t typically be involved in clinical research involving humans, the assertion that NIH funding involves research that undergrads can’t get involved in is absolutely false. While medical research involving humans are expensive (and rare because so few get to trial), by far, most by actual dollar amount and especially by the number of discretely funded projects, are the type of bench/wet lab laboratory research that undergrads could be involved with, and this is certainly the case at Pitt. In fact, NIH clinical trial categories account for only about $3.3 billion out of the NIH’s $30.6 billion annual budget, so that is only about 10%. Add to that fact that about 70% of clinical trail funding in the US is privately funded so most clinical trial research isn’t reflected in NIH money at all.

The reality is that research involving humans is a smaller component because of its extreme complications in regulations involved in conducting it, except perhaps in psychiatry departments. Major research medical schools like Pitt and the University of Pennsylvania, both of which I’ve done HIV-related neuroscience research in, are filled with departments and divisions housing dozens of labs each conducting bench research even classified as “clinical” (and most of these at places like Pitt and Penn are absolutely accessible to undergrads). Undergrads can be trained in most safety and animal procedures that are necessary to conduct this research. For instance, as an undergrad at Pitt many years ago, I was injecting live HIV virus, human culture cells, and doing surgery on mice in the medical center laboratory in the Division of Neuropathology. Further, the assertions about MDs large salaries gobbling up research funds are also not true as allowances for salaries (as a % time that a principal investigator on a project dedicates to it) are capped by NIH and their salaries are supplemented by clinical duties; nor is the point about square footage for indirects vs clinical space relevant, and actually, is pretty much flat out not true, as again, most med school departments’ research is actually wet lab research in animal models or culture, not human. I have to be blunt, but luvthej doesn’t appear to be someone that has any accurate knowledge of research environments at major medical schools and therefore I wouldn’t put any weight on his or her statements.

The reality is, NIH funding, by in large, can be thought of as a direct reflection on the research opportunities that are available, including to undergrads if the labs are located near them, and there are certainly more of those at Pitt and a place like Penn than at PSU where its med school is located 100 miles away. And by far, life sciences are better at Pitt than anywhere else in the state except maybe the University of Pennsylvania in Philly, and that is directly reflected in the prestige of all the health sciences and health and biomedical research funding at the university. I stake my 15 plus years in academic biosciences on that statement.