A New Class Joins the Faculty’s MD/PhD Program

The Faculty of Medicine is pleased to welcome a new class of students to its MD/PhD Program, a unique track designed to train future physician-scientists. This year marks an important milestone for the program with the addition of the first group of students from the Faculty’s six-year medical track.

Joining the program this year are Nitzan Oren, Shahar Moshe, Mor Adani, Avital Pinkhasov, Eden Buza Shtraimich, Lavi Stern, and Anna Hillel Shishkin.

The MD/PhD Program enables medical students to combine their medical education with in-depth research training from the early stages of their studies. Its goal is to cultivate a new generation of physicians with strong scientific thinking skills, the ability to critically evaluate scientific literature, and a broad understanding of how research questions are translated into advances in medicine and biomedical science.

The program is led by Prof. Haim Putterman and Dr. Ron Auerbach, together with Academic Coordinator Dr. Dorit Raviv-Shay. During the first stage of the program, students are introduced to scientific research, critical reading of scientific literature, research-oriented thinking, and the essential tools needed to understand contemporary biomedical research. This stage provides participants with a broad foundation that helps them identify research fields and laboratories that match their interests.

In the second stage, students join the Faculty’s research laboratories for a period of three years. During this time, they take an active role in research projects, gain experience in systematic scientific work, and develop a firsthand understanding of the research process—from formulating research questions and conducting experiments to analyzing data, presenting findings, and critically evaluating their significance.