Welcome to the 39th Annual MD-PhD National Student Conference!

Breckenridge Resort (9,600 feet); July 12^th-14^th, 2024

Conference Program 2024 (pdf)

1511 KB

Attending PSTP Representatives

University of Colorado: Internal Medicine PSTP: Dr. David Schwartz, MD

Stanford: Anesthesiology PSTP (Stanford FARM Program): Dr. QiLiang Chen, MD, PhD

Harvard: Internal Medicine PSTP: Dr. Jatin Vyas, MD, PhD

Columbia University: Anesthesiology Physician Scientist Research: Dr. Charles Emala, MD

UC San Francisco: UCSF Physician Scientist Scholar Program: Dr. Arun Wiita, MD, PhD

Stanford: Translational Investigator Program: Dr. Paul Cheng, MD, PhD

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill: Pediatric PSTP: Dr. Misty Good, MD, MS

University of Michigan: Pathology PSTP: Dr. Mark Rudolf, MD, PhD

University of Colorado: Pediatric PSTP: Dr. Christine Vohwinkel, MD, PhD

University of Northern Carolina: Internal Medicine PSTP: Dr. Joseph A. Duncan, MD, PhD

Duke University: Anesthesiology PSTP: Dr. Mara Serbanescu, MD

The Ohio State University Internal Medicine PSTP: Dr. Robert Baiocchi, MD, PhD

Collins_Keynote Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., currently serves as an NIH Distinguished Investigator in the intramural program of the National Human Genome Research Institute, pursuing genomics research on type 2 diabetes and a rare disorder of premature aging called progeria.

Dr. Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his previous leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH from 1993-2008.

Dr. Collins then served as the 16th Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2009. In 2017, President Donald Trump asked Dr. Collins to continue to serve as the NIH Director. President Joe Biden did the same in 2021. For those 12 years, serving an unprecedented three administrations, Dr. Collins oversaw the work of the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world, spanning the spectrum from basic to clinical research. Dr. Collins stepped down as NIH Director on December 19, 2021.

From February 2022 to October 2022, Dr. Collins served as Acting Science Advisor to President Biden. From November 2022 to May 2023 he continued his White House service as a Special Advisor to the President for Special Projects. He continues to serve as the White House lead for a bold program to eliminate hepatitis C in the United States.

Dr. Collins is an elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007, and received the National Medal of Science in 2009. In 2020, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (UK) and was also named the 50th winner of the Templeton Prize, which celebrates scientific and spiritual curiosity.

W. Kimryn Rathmell, M.D., Ph.D., M.M.H.C., was sworn in as the 17th NCI director on December 18, 2023. She previously led the Vanderbilt University Medical Center as physician-in-chief and chair of the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Rathmell is a recipient of the 2019 Louisa Nelson Award for Women of Achievement, Vision, and Inspiration, the 2019 Eugene P. Schonfeld Award from the Kidney Cancer Association, and the Paragon Award for Research Excellence from the Doris Duke Foundation. She was a leader of The Cancer Genome Atlas’s (TCGA) kidney cancer projects and served as a TCGA analysis working group member across the spectrum of cancers, winning the 2020 American Association for Cancer Research Team Science Award. She has served on the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors, and the Forbeck Foundation Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Rathmell has held leadership positions with the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society for Clinical Investigation, serving as secretary–treasurer and president. As a result of her efforts, Dr. Rathmell has been elected to the Association of American Physicians, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Rathmell’s specialty is the research and treatment of complex and hereditary kidney cancers. She also focuses on underlying drivers of kidney cancers using genetic, molecular, and cell biology to develop interventions to improve patients’ lives. Dr. Rathmell’s research has resulted in more than 250 articles in leading peer-reviewed journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Rathmell earned undergraduate degrees in biology and chemistry from the University of Northern Iowa and her Ph.D. in biophysics and M.D. from Stanford University. She completed an internal medicine internship at the University of Chicago and an internal medicine residency, medical oncology fellowship, and postdoctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2022, she completed her Master of Management in Health Care from the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management.

Michael B Brenner MD is the E. F. Brigham Professor of Medicine, at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Human Immunology Center, Director of the Single Cell Genomics Core, and Director of Cell and Molecular Immunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Selected honors include: Election to the National Academy of Sciences and in 2023 named as Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate (top 1% of scientists by citations).

Brenner’s laboratory designs and implements high dimensional immunophenotyping, single cell transcriptomic analyses and functional studies to deconstruct human autoimmune disorders. Discovery-based single cell and spatial analyses carried out in humans are used to define pathologic cell populations which are then interrogated in vitro or in animal models. In recent studies in the T cell field, his laboratory defined a new T helper cell population called T peripheral helper T (Tph) cells that are pathologically expanded in rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and many other autoimmune diseases and drive B cell responses and antibody production. He recognized the major CD8 T cell population expanded in inflamed human tissues was not the well-known granzyme B+ cytotoxic T cells, but rather CD8 T cells that express granzyme K. Exciting new studies now reveal that granzyme K drives a new pathway of complement activation. He identified a super-activated macrophage state that produces the highest levels of inflammatory factors in inflamed synovium as well as in tissues across several diseases. His laboratory has defined the central role of fibroblasts in inflammation and tissue damage, including novel subsets of highly inflammatory fibroblasts expanded in RA, and the role of Notch3 signalling in driving fibroblast differentiation and pathologic function. Current studies are defining the transcriptional regulation of pathologic fibroblasts. Together, these studies are “reconstructing” the immunopathology of RA and other autoimmune diseases.

Some of Professor Brenner’s other research accomplishments in basic biology include the discovery of gd T cells and their functions. In contrast to peptide MHC presentation, he identified a new system of antigen presentation by which immune system T cell receptors recognize lipids as cognate antigens presented by CD1 antigen presenting molecules. He defined the trafficking, loading and function of CD1a, b, c and d, and the functions of CD1-restricted T cells and iNKT cells in host defence and immunoregulation. He identified the integrin molecule aEb7, its counter-receptor (E-cadherin), and its role in mucosal leukocyte homing. He defined the role of calnexin in protein assembly and quality control, and the role of small GTPase Arl proteins in endocytic trafficking.

jimdicarlo_ 1.7MB James J. DiCarlo M.D., Ph.D.

Peter de Florez Professor of Neuroscience Director, MIT Quest for Intelligence

Co-Director, Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Jim DiCarlo is a Professor of Systems and Computational Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research team’s primary goal is to discover and artificially emulate the brain mechanisms that underlie human visual intelligence. Over the past 20 years, using the non-human primate animal model organism, DiCarlo and his collaborators have helped develop our contemporary, engineering-level understanding of the neural mechanisms that underlie visual information processing in the ventral visual stream — a complex series of interconnected brains areas — and how that processing supports core cognitive abilities such as object and face recognition. He and his collaborators aim to use this newly emerging scientific understanding to guide the development of more robust artificial vision systems (“AI”), to reveal new ways to beneficially modulate brain activity via modulations of images striking our eyes, to expose new methods of accelerating visual learning, to provide a basis for new neural prosthetics (brain-machine interfaces) to restore lost senses, and to provide a scientific foundation to understand how sensory processing is altered in conditions such as agnosia, autism and dyslexia.

DiCarlo trained in biomedical engineering, medicine, systems neurophysiology and computing at Northwestern (BSE), Johns Hopkins (MD/PhD), and Baylor College of Medicine (Postdoc). He served as Head of MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences from 2012 to 2021, and he is currently the Director of the MIT Quest for Intelligence (2021-present) where he and his leadership team are working to advance interdisciplinary research at the interface of natural and artificial intelligence. DiCarlo is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, a Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences, a McKnight Scholar in Neuroscience, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Diversity Equity and Inclusion Speaker

hamblin Dr. Cherise Hamblin, Founder and President of Patients R Waiting, Assistant Professor in OBGYN at UMass Chan Medical School, Medical Director of the UMass Memorial Health Doula Program, Director of the Underrepresented in Medicine Workforce Development and Capacity Building for the UMass Chan Collaborative in Health Equity

Dr. Cherise Hamblin was born and raised in the Bronx, NY where she attended Bronx High School of Science. After graduation, Dr. Hamblin attended Franklin & Marshall College where she received a double major in biology and spanish in 2003. During her time at Franklin & Marshall College, she served as the Black Student Union Vice President and the Admission Office intern for Minority Recruitment. She also played rugby and studied abroad in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Dr. Hamblin subsequently attended medical school at Northwestern University and completed her training in Obstetrics & Gynecology in Phoenix, AZ. Dr. Hamblin is passionate about working with the next generation of physicians both in her clinical roles and nonprofit work. For over a decade she has worked with advisors, students, and community organizers on various mentoring and health career exposure programs.

She is the founder and president of Patients R Waiting, a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating health disparities by increasing diversity in medicine. She is a board certified OBGYN with a career focus on health care workforce development and antiracism in medicine. She is an Assistant Professor in OBGYN at UMass Chan Medical School and the Medical Director of the UMass Memorial Health Doula Program. Additionally, she serves as the Director of Under Represented in Medicine Workforce Development and Capacity Building for the UMass Chan Collaborative in Health Equity.

BIOETHICS SPEAKER

Insoo_Hyun_PhD Insoo Hyun, PhD, is a prominent figure in bioethics, with significant contributions to research ethics and policy in advanced biotechnologies. He is the former director of research ethics at Harvard Medical School's Center for Bioethics and taught at HMS as a senior lecturer in Global Health and Social Medicine. Currently, Dr. Hyun is the director of the Center for Life Sciences and Public Learning at the Museum of Science, Boston. He also works as a bioethics consultant for the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

His past work included leading a BRAIN Initiative-funded project on the ethical aspects of human brain organoid research, in collaboration with Harvard and Stanford scientists. He was also a Co-Principal Investigator on an NIH grant focusing on oversight in stem cell-based human-animal chimera research with colleagues at the Hastings Center.

Dr. Hyun's expertise is widely recognized through his appearances on National Public Radio and contributions to journals like Nature and Science. He authored Bioethics and the Future of Stem Cell Research and was honored as one of Cleveland’s Most Interesting People of 2019.

TIME	EVENT	LOCATION
9:30 AM – 12:30 PM	Registration	Atrium
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM	Lunch Keynote Speaker: Dr. Rathmell	Elevation Ballroom
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM	Oral Presentations: Immunology & Microbiology General Medicine & Physiology	Elevation Ballroom Blue Spruce/Aspen
3:00 PM – 3:30 PM	Coffee Break	Atrium
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM	DEI: Dr. Hamblin Ethics: Dr. Hyun (Session A)	DEI: Elevation Ballroom Ethics: Blue Spruce/Aspen
4:45 PM – 5:45 PM	Career Panel	Elevation Ballroom
5:45 PM – 7:15 PM	Dinner Keynote Speaker: Dr. DiCarlo	Elevation Ballroom
7:15 PM – 7:30 PM	Poster set up	Forest/Atrium
7:30 PM – 9:00 PM	Poster Session I & Happy Hour *Sponsored by FAER*	Forest/Atrium

TIME	EVENT	LOCATION
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM	Breakfast	Elevation Ballroom
8:30 AM – 11:30 AM	Funday Activities	Various
11:30 PM – 12:30 PM	Lunch PSTP Networking	Elevation Ballroom
12:45 PM – 2:00 PM	Internal Medicine PSTP Panel Pediatrics/Anesthesia/Pathology PSTP Panel	Elevation Ballroom Blue Spruce/Aspen
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM	Keynote: Dr. Brenner	Elevation Ballroom
3:00 PM – 3:30 PM	ASPA Presentation	Elevation Ballroom
3:30 PM – 4:00 PM	Coffee Break	Atrium
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM	DEI: Dr. Hamblin Ethics: Dr. Hyun (Session B)	DEI: Blue Spruce/Aspen Ethics: Elevation Ballroom
5:15 PM – 6:45 PM	Poster Session II & Happy Hour *Sponsored by the Department of Pathology, CU Anschutz Medical Campus*	Forest/Atrium
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM	Dinner Keynote Speaker: Dr. Collins	Elevation Ballroom

TIME	EVENT	LOCATION
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM	Breakfast	Elevation Ballroom
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM	Oral Presentations: Bioengineering & Medical Imaging Cancer Biology	Blue Spruce/Aspen Elevation Ballroom
10:45 AM – 11:45 AM	Oral Presentations: Neuroscience Molecular Biology & Pharmacology	Blue Spruce/Aspen Elevation Ballroom
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM	Lunch & Closing Remarks	Elevation Ballroom

Please see the REGISTRATION highlight box on the left-hand side of this website for links, information, and cost. The DEADLINES highlight box also gives information on important dates.

Administrators can pay for attendees through the multiple registrants' page. They must email their confirmation email to the conference committee to receive a promotion code. The attendees then must complete the registration form individually to register and can use the provided promotion code at checkout to waive the registration fee.

Following registration, attendees must still fill out the MD-PhD Attendee survey (required) for NIH reporting. This form is also how attendees will submit an abstract to be considered for an oral/poster presentation, and/or a diversity travel award.

Finally, attendees should fill out the Saturday Morning Activities form to help coordinate activities and transportation.

This information, the forms, and more information can all be found on the left-hand side of this website, or in the registration confirmation email.

Please check with the person who paid for your registration to get your code. When someone (e.g., a program administrator) fills out the multiple registrants form to pay for attendees, we ask that they reach out to us to ask for a discount code. We then create a discount code specific to the people that have been paid for, and send that code to the person who filled out the multiple registrants form. From there, the program administrator should then tell the attendees that they paid for (i.e., you) what code to use to waive your fee at registration check out.

There are a few common reasons for this that may be helpful to check for:

Confirmation was sent to junk: Please check your junk folders.
Someone else registered for you: Confirmation emails are sent to the email provided at registration. If someone else (e.g., a program administrator) registered for you, it is likely the confirmation email was sent to their email. If so, check to see if they have it, and can forward it to you.
Wrong email address: Sometimes people have provided an alternative email address when registering, and then checked a different email address for their confirmation. Please check other email addresses of yours.
The registration website had a bug and failed to send the confirmation: Unfortunately, our registration website is not perfect, and has sometimes failed in the past to successfully send a confirmation email. Please feel free to email us at the contact email provided elsewhere on the website so we can work on sending you another copy of your registration confirmation!

Posters and oral presentation selection will be based on the abstract submission from the MD-PhD Attendee Survey provided in your registration email confirmation.

If you have been emailed that you have been selected for an oral presentation, please email us your finalized powerpoint before the conference begins!

Abstracts (2000 total character limit) can be submitted through the required MD-PhD Attendee Survey provided with your registration email confirmation. You must submit an abstract to be considered for an oral presentation, poster, or Travel Award. You can select your abstract to be considered for both an oral presentation and a poster.

Abstracts are due by May 17th to be considered for an oral presentation and/or a Travel Award. Abstracts are due by June 3rd to be considered for a poster presentation.

Yes! Please do not hesitate to register. Abstract submission does not occur at the time of registration. Rather, abstract submission occurs when submitting the MD-PhD Attendee Survey.

The MD-PhD Attendee Survey is required before attending the conference. We do ask that you wait to submit the MD-PhD Attendee Survey until you also have your abstract ready to submit with it (if you decide to submit an abstract). If you submit the Attendee survey and then later want to submit an abstract, please resubmit the MD-PhD Attendee Survey form and email us at the email shown in the Contact Us section. The email will help us track the double submission properly! Thank you!

Yes. You can fill out the Student Attendee Survey (found on the website) before completing registration. Some students may find this helpful for several reasons. For example, it may be easier for some to wait to see if they receive a Travel Award so that they can waive their registration fee. Or, a student may wish to wait to see if their abstract is selected for an oral presentation before paying for registration.

However, if it is equally convenient for you, we prefer that you register before submitting the Student Attendee Survey. This will help us in managing the conference. If you pay for registration and either later need to cancel registration (before the final day of registration), or receive a Travel Award, we will reimburse you (see more information in the FAQ with Travel Award reimbursement).

If you are presenting a poster, the maximum allowable poster size is 40x60 inches. There is no minimum size, but we suggest that you make sure it large enough for people to easily read from a slight distance. You can have your poster oriented in landscape (most common) or vertical format. The material needs to be able to be pinned on a board. We will provide an easel, poster board, and pins.

For many, it works best to fly in the day before the conference and fly back either very late on the last day of, or during the day after, the conference. While flying in the morning of the conference is possible, it may take 3-4.5+ hours from landing time at Denver International Airport to arrival time at Breckenridge Resort.

If you fly into Denver the day before the conference but plan on traveling to Breckenridge the morning of the conference (e.g., your flight arrives late the day before), we suggest booking a night at either the Westin Denver International Airport Hotel (this would help with transport from the airport in the morning since the hotel is connected to the airport), or in a hotel closer to downtown (e.g., someplace close to Denver Union Station, where one may be able to connect to shuttles that travel towards Breckenridge). A similar idea would apply if you were planning to fly out of Denver the day after the conference.

Getting between Denver International Airport and Breckenridge Resort will take several hours. Given that, there is a strong chance you may want to fly into Denver the day/night before the conference and fly back either late Sunday or on Monday. Therefore, you might consider booking at Breckenridge Resort (or another hotel closer to Denver) the night before, and/or after, the conference.

There are several options to get to Breckenridge Resort (especially from Denver International Airport or Union Station in Downtown Denver).

This year, we are able to offer a discounted rate for shuttles from Denver International Airport to Breckenridge Resort through Epic Mountain Express. This option can be very convenient, as the shuttle can provide door-to-door service between the airport and your lodging. The above link has the discount code, MSTP24, applied, and lodging destinations can be found under “Your locations”.

If you are interested in other ground transportation options, below are some alternative suggestions that attendees have used in the past. These may be cheaper or provide more flexibility:

Car Rental from Denver Airport: Options for car rentals have the potential to be cheaper than shuttles. This may also help offer attendees increased flexibility (e.g., getting to and from Saturday Activities).
Shuttles from Denver Union Station (i.e., Colorado Department of Transportation: Snowstang, Pegasus, Bustang West): This is by far the cheapest option. The Denver Light Rail will take you directly from Denver Airport to Denver Union Station. Pegasus or Bustang West will take you to the Frisco Transit Center where you can take the free Summit Stage Bus to Breckenridge Resort. It is highly recommended to check schedules, download relevant apps, and purchase tickets ahead of time where relevant (Denver Light Rail, the shuttle option of your choice, and Summit Stage Bus), to make this option as seamless as possible. Follow the provided link above, or google these options, for more information.
Other shuttles from Denver Airport to Breckenridge Resort (e.g., Summit Express or Peak 1 Express): Similar to Epic Mountain Express, however, we do not have a group discount with these companies.

More general information on getting to Breckenridge Resort can be found here.

Download the Webex events app:

- For iOS: Go to the App Store

- For Android: Go to Google Play Store

- Search for "Webex Events" and install the app

Open the app and sign in:

- Use your Webex account credentials

- If you don't have an account, you may need to create one

Join an event:

- Under the events tab, search “39th Annual MD/PhD Conference”

- Select the event and enter the event code (provided at the check-in table)

Use event features

- Schedule/program access

- Voting for talks/posters

- Announcements

- Other: maps, Q&A, speaker bios, etc.

Here is a general checklist of major action items to have completed before the conference to help make sure things are not missed. Note: More information on any of these steps can be found on the website here, and on the website FAQ.

Getting Ready Checklist:

Registration has been completed (confirmation email for your personal individual registration has been received).
MD-PhD Attendee Survey has been submitted (with abstract if desired)
Saturday Activity Survey has been submitted
Flights have been booked
Travel to and from the conference to the airport has been booked/planned-for
Hotel/Accommodations (e.g., Breckenridge Resort) have been booked
If selected for an oral presentation, your final PowerPoint has been emailed to us
Socio app is downloaded, and you have joined the event (Coming in early July)
You are well-prepared for Colorado high elevation weather - especially if you are doing a Saturday Activity (e.g., hats, sunglasses, strong sunscreen, hiking shoes, rain coat)
ENJOY THE CONFERENCE :)

Learning from the best with 4 Keynote Speakers with live Q&A sessions
Addressing diversity and discrimination in school and in your career with a diversity speaker (including a presentation and an opportunity to speak more with the diversity speaker over lunch)
Preparing for your next potential steps, with a PSTP Residency panel and showcase to meet directly with PSTP directors in small groups
Tackling integrity in science with an ethics discussion
Chances to present your work and connect with the research of MD-PhD students across the country with Poster Sessions and Oral Presentations
Saturday mountain activities, food (including all meals, snacks, and coffee), and breaks throughout the conference allow for ample time to connect with others and take in the fresh mountain air
Conference Swag, including 2024 conference water bottles
And so much more!

The annual national MD-PhD conference is dedicated to making the event available for all MD-PhD students nationwide. We believe that ensuring broad participation from students across the country will benefit every student in training. To lower barriers to participation in the conference, we are providing travel awards to students from groups traditionally underrepresented in health-related sciences, including but not limited to those described in the Notice of NIH’s Interest in Diversity.

Attendees can apply for a travel award through the required MD-PhD Attendee Survey emailed to them with their registration confirmation. On the MD-PhD Attendee Survey, attendees must submit an abstract before the oral presentation abstract deadline, select yes to be considered for a travel award, and must submit a short document stating how their background and/or unique lived experiences contribute to our conference culture of diversity and inclusive excellence. Travel awards will be selected based on scientific merit of abstracts.

Decisions on the travel award will be emailed to attendees before mid-June and will be posted on the website (unless requested otherwise). If selected, attendees who are granted a travel award will receive a $1000 award which they can put toward their travel and registration costs.

The conference will be held at Breckenridge Resort. We strongly encourage making lodging accommodations at Breckenridge Resort. Booking at Breckenridge Resort helps support the conference. We have blocked off a certain number of rooms for the resort with reduced pricing.

When you are ready to book room(s) for yourself and/or others, a limited selection of rooms can be found at this link. The Group Code BBRMST24 has been applied for a discounted rate. If you are interested in other options, additional lodging is available to book by phone. To receive special group rates, the name of your group should be referenced as Univ. CO MSTP 2024, with the following group code. For rooms in Gravity Haus, call (866) 558-1281 and reference group code HBGHCU24. For all other lodging, call (855) 948-0690 and reference group code BBRMST24. We suggest you register beforehand so you can use your email confirmation as proof if needed.

The meeting space is located within the Villiage at Breckenridge building, and Gravity Haus is the adjacent building. Other options are a short walk from the meeting space, with River Mountain Lodge located 0.3 miles away and Mountain Thunder Lodge located 0.6 miles away.

Below is a general list of room options and initial rates under our special group rates. Pricing and availability are subject to change.

Gravity Haus – 866-558-1281 – Group Code HBGHCU24
Room Style	Average Nightly Rate
GHH Rambler One King (GHH KNG RMBL)	$289.00

Other Lodging – 855-948-0690 – Group Code BBRMST24
Room Style	Average Nightly Rate
VAB Studio (LIF STUDIO)	$219.00
VAB Studio Premier (LIF STUDIO PRMR)	$219.00
VAB 1 Bedroom (PLC 1BR)	$249.00
VAB 2 Bedroom (PLC 2BR)	$379.00
VAB 3 Bedroom (PLC 3BR)	$419.00
MTL 1 Bedroom (MTL 1BR)	$249.00
MTL 2 Bedroom (MTL 2BR)	$319.00
MTL 3 Bedroom (MTL 3BR)	$419.00
RML Hotel Queen (RML QN)	$165.00
RML Hotel 2 Queen (RML QN/QN)	$165.00
RML 2 Bedroom (RML 2BR)	$279.00

If you have any issues booking a room or questions in general, please email the committee at the email provided on the left-hand side of the website (Contact Us highlight box).

Please fill out the Saturday activities form (which will be sent by email) before the start of the conference if you plan to join one of the activities. This will help us coordinate the groups for the activities, and transportation.

Potential Saturday Morning Activities include: Moderate Hike - Hoosier Pass. 11 mile drive from Breck (20 minutes or less). "Leisure time on Main Street" Activities at Base of Peak 8 - mountain biking rentals, mini-golf, rock climbing, ride the chair lift up to top.

Please keep in mind when planning your activity that we will be at a very high altitude.

Please make a plan for your luggage ahead of time, especially if you have to check out on Sunday morning as well (see related FAQ about luggage, check out, and Sunday morning activities).

If you booked your room to end on Sunday, check-out time is historically 10AM. Breckenridge has said that they will have a luggage storage room available to attendees on Sunday to hold luggage after checkout during the final hours of conference programming. Breckenridge and the MD-PhD planning committee is not responsible for lost or stolen items.

An email telling you if you won a TA or are giving an oral presentation or presenting a poster should have been sent out to you before late-June. We will send the email to the email address you listed on registration.

Travel Awards and oral and poster presentations will be displayed elsewhere on this website following selection.

There is complimentary parking behind the conference spaces available on a first come first serve bases. Additionally, each of lodging properties have their own parking options as well:

Gravity Haus – Valet Only $40
Village at Breckenridge – Underground self-serve parking garage $25
River Mountain Lodge – Included for 1 car
Mountain Thunder Lodge – First come, first serve

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Welcome to the 39th Annual MD-PhD National Student Conference!

Breckenridge Resort (9,600 feet); July 12^th-14^th, 2024

Welcome to the 39th Annual MD-PhD National Student Conference!

Breckenridge Resort (9,600 feet); July 12th-14th, 2024

How do I register?

My program paid for my registration, but I do not have a code to waive my fee when I go to register myself?

I have a discount code for registering, but it looks like it is still having me pay on the first page of registration?

The registration website is giving me an option to either make an account or checkout as guest. What do I do?

I registered, but do not see my confirmation email. How can I find it?

How do I submit my poster or oral presentation?

How do I submit an abstract?

Can I register first, and then submit an abstract later?

Can I submit an abstract first, and then register later?

What are the poster requirements (e.g., size)?

What time/dates should I fly to and from the conference?

How do I get to the Breckenridge Resort?

How do I find where to go? Are there any maps to help?

How do we navigate the conference? (Webex information)

Am I ready for the conference (checklist)?

What will I get out of this conference?

What is a travel award and how do I apply?

How and when do I book my room(s) for the conference?

How do we navigate Saturday morning activities?

What should I do with my luggage after checkout on Sunday if I have plans to stay at the resort later in the day?

How do I know if I won a Travel Award, or if my abstract was selected for a poster presentation?

Where do I park?

Breckenridge Resort (9,600 feet); July 12^th-14^th, 2024