Welcome to the Office of Research Education and Mentoring

The Office of Research Education and Mentoring’s (OREM) mission is to support and develop robust Translational Science Educational, Career Development and Degreed Certificate programs. All our programs are developed with the intent to further enhance the capabilities of students, staff and faculty members at our institution in the exciting field of Translational Science. Our diverse sets of programs are offered at various levels to meet the needs of the complex translational science workforce and a variety of health-related disciplines. Furthermore, our courses and programs utilize dedicated expertise from faculty members at UTHSA for education, mentoring and guided multidisciplinary research.

To accomplish this mission, the Office of Translational Education and Research seeks to:

Immerse students, staff and faculty in a rich clinical and translational research environment;
Develop and expand a comprehensive array of didactic course and workshop offerings in clinical and translational investigation;
Provide and support effective mentorship to ensure the success of our students, partners and affiliates in the field of clinical and translational research;
Evaluate and continually improve the program.

Translational Education Programs

Masters & Doctoral Programs:

Master of Science in Clinical Investigation-Translational Science (MSCI-TS): The 30 semester-credit-hour (SCH) MSCI-TS program is conducted through the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the UT Health San Antonio. The MSCI-TS Program seeks to train outstanding healthcare professionals in the core competencies necessary for the safe conduct of clinical and translational research. The program aims to provide fundamental curricular activities and valuable training opportunities through didactic coursework and the development of a guided mentored research proposal that ultimately culminates in our students developing manuscripts that are submitted to peer review scientific journals.
Doctoral Degree in Translational Science (TS PhD): A joint doctoral degree offered through the collaboration of four universities: UT Health San Antonio, UTSA, UT Austin, and UT Health School of Public Health San Antonio Regional Campus. The program is designed to use the existing resources and expertise in specific key areas of each university to offer a strong, diverse, and competitive Translational Science PhD. The TS PhD will prepare the next generation of scientists to lead the multi-disciplinary biomedical research teams of the future in increasingly complex research environments.

Certificate Degree Programs:

Certificate in Translational Science (CTS): The 12 semester-credit-hour (SCH) Certificate in Translational Science (CTS) Program is conducted through the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the UT Health San Antonio and is designed for research professionals who seek organized and intensive training in fundamental topics in translational science.
Certificate in Cancer Prevention (CCP): This 12 semester-credit-hour (SCH) program, operated in the UT Health San Antonio Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), offers formal coursework in topics relevant to cancer prevention and translational science including biostatistics, topics in cancer prevention, epidemiology, and clinical trials design and analysis. The CCP program will focus on the unique risks for cancer in the South Texas region.

Career Development Programs:

TL1 Translational Science Training (TST) TL1 Program: The Translational Science Training (TST) TL1 Program is designed to enhance the quality and scope of the pre- and postdoctoral research experience by offering interdisciplinary training and mentorship in Translational Science. TL1 Scholars are selected for a one-year training program on the basis of a competitive application from existing predoctoral students and postdoctoral research fellows at UT Health San Antonio.
KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Program: The two-year KL2 program provides Junior faculty scholars with educational, mentoring, and other guidance opportunities, plus 75% release time for research, designed to improve their capacity to become independent research investigators. KL2 Scholars are selected for the two-year seminar and research-oriented program on a competitive basis.

Other Educational Activities:

Grant Writing with New Investigators (GWNI): GWNI workshops are held twice monthly and offer small group evaluation, discussion, and guidance for new investigators who are actively preparing a research grant application, fellowship, or career development award. Participation is limited but applications are accepted year-round.
F-Troop: F-Troop is offered weekly as a hands-on writing workshop for pre- and postdoctoral trainees who are working to prepare an application for an individual Fellowship applications (F Awards, including F30, F31, and F32, or equivalent).
Team Science Training: Online modules created by Northwestern Medicine, available to everyone. They are an online community for practitioners interested in team science providing knowledge based content modules. Registration is free. Please be sure to use your UT Health SA email address when signing up for tracking purposes.
T1 - T4 in 3 (Minutes) Challenge: The T1 - T4 in 3 (Minutes) Challenge is an annual event which takes place on the second friday in April and requires a presentation in three minutes or less to a lay audience, the topics of the presentations will be on the presenter’s research. This competition challenges our OREM graduate students (MSCI-TS & TS PhD), TST TL1 trainees, and our KL2 Scholars to effectively translate their research into terminology that the non-academic community will understand.
NIH Good Clinical Practice eLearning Course: The Society of Behavioral Medicine is pleased to offer free National Institutes of Health (NIH) training and certification for good clinical practice in social and behavioral research. Effective January 1, 2017, all NIH-funded investigators and staff who are involved in applying for, conducting, overseeing, or managing clinical trials should be trained in good clinical practice and may be required to show documentation of training completion. Investigators and others are expected to refresh their training every three years.
Bartter Professorship: The two-day Bartter Visiting Professorship is held in the fall of each year. The Bartter Professor delivers Department of Medicine Grand Rounds and a Research Seminar. In addition, the professorship provides UT Health San Antonio faculty, fellows and trainees an opportunity to interact with premier clinical investigators from around the country.

Certificates Degree Programs under Development:

Certificate of Population Health and Data Science (CPHDS): Focused on informatics (clinical), high throughput data sources, next generation sequencing-based genomic and epigenomic methods, use of electronic health records and enterprise data warehouse systems big data, precision medicine.
Certificate of Drug Discovery (CDD): To develop an innovative CDD program to enhance Workforce Development in drug discovery, target identification, lead optimization, and preclinical verification, intellectual property, regulatory, commercialization issues.

CONTACT INFO FOR THE OFFICE OF TRANSLATIONAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH