CAPD Clinical Research Externship

The CAPD Clinical Research Externship (CRE) is a 6-week experiential learning opportunity designed to help undergraduates explore the career path of a physician that conducts clinical research.  Apply now for the MIT Clinical Research Externship here.

Participants will spend 10-hrs per week acquiring career-building connections with Physician Mentors at Mass General Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and UCSF Health (San Francisco, CA) while learning about the important role physicians and clinical research play in advancing medical knowledge and improving patient outcomes.  The program is best suited for undergraduates pursuing a career as a physician (MD) or physician-scientist (MD-PhD).

To learn more about the Physician Mentors and their professional backgrounds, visit the Physician Mentors page here.

Through the Clinical Research Externship, selected participants will:

• Spend up to 6 weeks under the guidance of a physician mentor at a local Boston hospital or UCSF Health.  Each participant will commit up to 10-hrs per week, Monday through Friday.  The 10-hrs can be consistent through the entire 6-week experience or vary week-to-week.
• Receive a stipend up to $2000 to offset any costs associated with participating in the program.  The duration of the externship impacts the amount of funding received and is determined by each participant and their physician mentor.
• Engage in small-scale projects meant to expose each student to the process of conducting clinical research.  This may include data collection, entry, and/or management, literature reviews, participant recruitment, statistical analysis, and other relevant short-term projects
• Observe physicians in their clinical setting and their interactions with patients.
• Develop meaningful connections with a physician mentor through 1-1 check-ins while also meeting with lab members and research collaborators.
• Become better equipped to confirm an interest a Medical Degree (MD) or combined MD/PhD.
• Acquire a valuable learning opportunity meant to assist one in exploring a career in medicine.

Timeline:

• Each externship will last up to six weeks, with participants committing up to 10 hours per week, Monday through Friday.  *Keep in mind, the CRE is not a full-time experience nor an opportunity to conduct a research project and is instead an opportunity for students to gain exposure to the career of a physician that conducts clinical research.  The CRE is ideal for students that have an additional free 10 hours a week to contribute to this experience.  The CRE is meant to supplement another experience you are already engaging in since the externship is only 10 hours per week. 

Eligibility:

• Must be a current MIT student
• Preference given to rising juniors and seniors
• A current MIT Prehealth student; please email prehealth@mit.edu if you are not

Application Requirements:

• Resume
• Responses to short answer essay questions
• Government Issued ID
• Visa Information (if applicable)

Required Health Forms (submitted upon being accepted):

• Vaccination & Immunization Records/History (provided by MIT Health)
• COVID Vaccine Documentation with Pfizer or Moderna Booster Shot
• Flu Vaccine Documentation
• TB Test within 3 months of start date (only for specific hospitals participating; applicants will be notified if required to submit)

During the 2025 summer, Clinical Research Externship participants will be hosted by:

Dr. Josh Aronson, MD | Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) – Dr. Aronson (MIT ’04, HST MD ‘08) is a neurosurgeon and Director of Epilepsy Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. His lab focuses on mechanisms of learning and memory in human subjects.  Dr. Aronson also attended MIT as an undergrad majoring in Course 7.

Dr. Marilyn Liang, MD | Boston Children’s Hospital – Dr. Liang is a dermatologist and Co-Director of the Vascular Anomalies Center at Boston Children’s Hospital.  She is also an associate professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Liang conducts laser procedures to address a variety of vascular anomalies including  Sturge-Weber Syndrome, Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC), and other birthmark types and syndromes.

Dr. Elaine Tseng, MD | UCSF Health (San Francisco, CA) – Dr. Tseng is Professor of Surgery in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Univ of California San Francisco Medical Center and the co-director of UCSF’s Cardiac Biomechanics Lab. Her clinical expertise includes minimally invasive aortic valve replacement and multi-arterial coronary artery bypass grafting. Dr. Tseng also attended MIT as an undergrad majoring in Course 7 Biology.

• *IMPORTANT: To be paired with Dr. Elaine Tseng, students must be physically located in the San Francisco area during the time of the externship and have access to UCSF. This opportunity requires in-person availability in San Francisco/Bay Area, California.

Alexander Nagrebetsky, M.D., M.Sc. | Mass General Hospital (MGH) – Dr. Alexander Nagrebetsky, MD, is an anesthesiologist and intensive care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, balancing clinical practice with leading research on ICU care, pain management, and preoperative fasting. His work investigates traditional fasting protocols before surgery, using big data and pragmatic clinical research to evaluate their impact. Additionally, he is involved in developing clinical recommendations for ICU care and utilizing innovative technology for pain management in critically ill patients.  Students paired with Dr. Nagrebetsky will acquire hands-on experience in clinical trial operations, governance, and data analysis. Participants will analyze patient data to assess outcomes of different fasting protocols, gaining valuable research skills and opportunities for continued involvement in clinical studies, potentially contributing to abstracts.

Dr. Jerry Zhu, MD-PhD | Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH) – Dr. Zhu is a gastroenterologist at BWH and leads a laboratory with long term interests in understanding the mechanisms that control cell proliferation and differentiation during early vertebrate embryogenesis.  The laboratory’s work has led to a novel venue to revert immune suppression at tumor microenvironment, the central obstacle of cancer immunotherapy.

Learn more about each physician mentor: https://capd.mit.edu/resources/physician-mentors-for-the-2025-capd-clinical-research-externship/ 

Apply to participate in the CAPD Clinical Research Externship now!