College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Reproductive and Developmental Sciences Program

The RDSP comprises an extensive, highly productive and renowned group of >35 researchers across multiple colleges and departments. Relevant Colleges include Agriculture and Natural Resources, Engineering, Human Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine, Natural Sciences, Veterinary Medicine, and Education. As a research center dedicated to reproductive biology, the RDSP is an outstanding intellectual resource that is continuing to expand. The opportunity to draw on the full range of expertise in RDSP and these other departments is tremendous. RDSP faculty are divided between the East Lansing and Grand Rapids campus. The two campuses are only about a 1-hour drive apart, and traveling from one location to the other is easy. Despite the physical separation between the two campuses, the two groups of RDSP members are highly interactive and there is an extensive collection of joint activities to create a cohesive training environment that effectively negates the physical separation. All meetings, seminars, and the Monday noon series are jointly video conferenced between the two sites. Distinguished lectures visit both campuses to ensure that trainees at both sites have the opportunity for in-person meetings between trainees and speakers. We hold a day-long Annual Research Day that brings together all members of the RDSP from both sites. Travel funds are provided in the RDSP budget to defray costs for trainees driving between campuses. Trainees also attend periodic social events organized by the trainees themselves, alternating between sites or meeting at an intermediate location. This allows the trainees to become part of a cohesive training community, where they can share ideas and interact with one another. Generous support for administrative assistants at both campuses also provides for coordination of activities and ongoing daily administrative contacts for all faculty and trainees in the program. Training program Directors also hold periodic group meetings with all the trainees, providing further opportunity for face-to-face interactions between trainees, and between trainees and the Directors. This year (2020) we plan to hold our first annual Career Day, which will bring trainees together with a number of internal and external speakers to discuss alternate career paths.

Michigan State University encompasses a 5000-acre campus in East Lansing, and the College of Human Medicine campus in Grand Rapids. Student enrollment includes
nearly 38,000 undergraduates, over 11,000 graduate and professional students, and nearly 2,000 non-degree enrollees. MSU hosts ~ 5900 faculty and academic staff, and >7100 other staff, with 1400 faculty and staff engaged in research and teaching. The Graduate and Post-doctoral training environment for Reproductive and Developmental Sciences at MSU is outstanding. Graduate programs for this training program are centered on six component programs that comprise the Biomedical Sciences umbrella program (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Cell and Molecular Biology, Genetics and Genome Science, Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Physiology). Additionally, trainees may participate in Interdisciplinary, Dual Degree, and other Departmental programs, including MD/PhD, DO/PhD, College of Natural Sciences Interdisciplinary Program, Quantitative Biology, Food Science/Environmental Toxicology, Neuroscience, Animal Science, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, and Biomedical Engineering.

Michigan State University’s Strategic Academic Development Initiative has helped to elevate the RDSP to national prominence. Recent investments include: a new $100M Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building (ISTB) opened in Spring 2020 in East Lansing housing researchers from the RDSP as well as Neuroscience, Precision Medicine, and Biomedical Computation; the Grand Rapids Research Center opened in 2019 in Grand Rapids; the Clinical Research Building with new state-of-the-art animal housing, the Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering building adjacent to the ISTB; and the Medical Innovation Building currently under construction in Grand Rapids adjacent to the GRRC.