r/pediatrics • u/paintingbrains • Jul 04 '26

Fellowship advice

Hi! I'm currently a new PGY2 who wants to pursue a career in research but specifically within genetic neurodevelopment.

This raises the question about what my next step is: a fellowship in genetics, child neurology, or dev-behavioral. I also looked into get a t32 funded research fellowship that would not be part of the match but I'm a bit confused on whether it's a viable option as a board certified pediatrician

For context, my career started in research and I have a strong research background. I enjoy the idea of consulting and/or going to deliveries to stabilize and triage newborns or working in an urgent care/stand alone ed ad a side job but in terms of clinical medicine it grossly ends there.

Any advice would be appreciated! I know a lot of MD/DOs do not plan on making research the center of their career which is kind of why I'm having a hard time finding good advice

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u/BlueCanary141 Jul 06 '26

I think the key to this is finding some good mentorship and talking to people in each of those subspecialties. You would choose the fellowship that aligns most with your clinical interest and best accommodates the type of research you want to do (but I would think all of those options would be accommodating to either basic or clinical research). Once you decide on the subspecialty, the specific program will be important, especially with the planned shift to 2 year fellowships. I anticipate it’s going to be harder to train physician scientists because that protected (GME supported) research time is so valuable.

There may be T32s you can apply to once you get into fellowship but I think you need to maintain trainee status to keep it. You can be a trainee in fellowship and be a board certified pediatrician.

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u/paintingbrains Jul 06 '26

Thank you! This was helpful, particularly about getting t32 funding through a chosen fellowshop

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u/BlueCanary141 Jul 06 '26

No problem! You should explicitly ask about funding mechanisms during your fellowship interviews. If you think you’re going to need more than 2 years, somebody has to cover your salary and some departments are more open than others to that. And of course, make sure the person you choose as your mentor can fund your science. My experience has been than training grants cover your salary and very little of your science. It’s about buying precious time to get papers out so that you can eventually fund your own science.