BTBBR Overview
The BTBBR program at MUSC responds to the urgent need for rigorously trained biostatisticians who also have substantial training in the basic biomedical sciences so that they are prepared to assume key roles in the new and rapidly evolving areas of multidisciplinary biomedical research. The BTBBR program stresses the integration of biostatistical theory and methods with tools from bioinformatics to address quantitative frontiers in modern basic biomedical research.
The overarching goal of the BTBBR program is to train a new generation of biostatisticians prepared to work in collaboration with biomedical scientists and bioinformaticians utilizing systems biology to facilitate evolution of basic biomedical research to translational research and ultimately to routine clinical application of new preventive and therapeutic approaches to human disease.
Strengths of the BTBBR program include
- an established and successful college-wide graduate program offering a common basic science curriculum that provides structured, broad-based training in the basic biomedical sciences at the entering graduate student level;
- an established biostatistics training program that, since its inception in 1970, has emphasized the integration of biological knowledge and biostatistical principles;
- an atmosphere of cooperation and acknowledged need for biostatistical input among basic biomedical science researchers; and
- the close collaborative relationship between biostatisticians and bioinformaticians housed within the same department and one that ranks sixth nationally in NIH funding to medical schools.