Welcome to Tri-I!
The Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program is a longstanding collaboration between Weill Cornell Medicine, The Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The close proximity among the renowned institutions and their associated hospitals has created a unique culture that encourages inter-institutional interaction, shared resources and synergistic research. This distinctive academic environment has cultivated generations of productive research collaborations, while providing an outstanding education for medical, graduate, and MD-PhD students as well as exceptional training for post-doctoral and clinical fellows. While the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program is only one of numerous partnerships on the tri-institutional campus, it is the most storied collaboration.
“Tri-I”, as it is affectionately known, grew out of three predecessor medical/graduate school programs: the Cornell/Rockefeller Program, founded in 1972; the Cornell/Sloan Kettering Program, founded in 1981; and the Cornell/Cornell Program, founded in 1984. The present Program was founded in 1991 and unifies the medical school and the graduate programs at each of the three institutions. The Program has received continuous Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) support from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the US Public Health Service since 1974.
Katharine Hsu, MD, PhDTri-I graduates receive training unmatched by any other MD-PhD program, drawing upon the strengths of three academic powerhouses. More than 250 laboratories actively participate in the training of MD-PhD students, providing them with an advanced understanding of biomedical science by utilizing state-of-the-art molecular, computational, and biophysical technology to elucidate the basic biological processes pertaining to human health and disease. Exceptional medical training in the classroom, small learning groups, outpatient clinic and inpatient wards collectively provides the critical foundations in human biology, pathophysiology, and clinical medicine, into which students’ research can be contextualized.
Our trainees come from all backgrounds and are immediately immersed in a culture that embraces modern biomedical research and helps students to achieve their research goals through a flexible, tailored course of study with unrestricted access to motivated and experienced mentors and thought leaders. Graduates of the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program continue to uphold the mission of Tri-I, remaining engaged in research whether it is based in the laboratory, the clinic, or in biopharma. Their success is due to the mastery and integration of two complementary skill sets: rigorous scientific inquiry and outstanding clinical acumen.
The Program’s mission is to educate and train an engaged and empowered group of physician-scientists who are prepared to bridge the gap between laboratory research and clinical medicine, thereby improving health and enhancing the quality of life by reducing disability and death from disease. Graduates of the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program are prepared and expected to be leaders in all aspects of modern biomedical research and academic medicine.
If these possibilities appeal to you, please contact the Program Office to learn more about Tri-I.
Dr. Katharine Hsu (Tri-I graduating class of 1994) became the Program Director on July 1, 2021. Read more about Dr. Hsu here, and visit her lab page here.