NIAID offers three-year medical fellowships in ACGME-approved training programs in allergy/immunology and infectious diseases. These programs aim to develop clinical and basic research skills in physicians who are well-grounded in clinical medicine and are pursuing a career in biomedical research.
Before beginning a fellowship, applicants must have complete three years of residency training in an approved internal medicine program (or in pediatrics for the allergy/immunology training program) in the United States or Canada. Qualified individuals may apply for a student loan repayment program that currently repays up to $35,000 per year of eligible student debt. For more information, visit National Institutes of Health (NIH) Intramural Loan Repayment Programs.
The three-year NIAID programs comprise one year of clinical responsibilities and two years in research. All trainees spend two or three months of the first year caring for patients at the NIH Clinical Center, the nation’s largest hospital devoted to clinical research. All NIAID patients participate in research protocols conducted by Division of Intramural Research (DIR) investigators. Patients enter the Clinical Center with various diseases, including the following:
- Autoimmune diseases
- Genetic and acquired immunodeficiencies
- Disorders of neutrophil and monocyte function
- Severe, acute, and chronic viral infections, including herpes simplex, Epstein-Barr virus, and HIV
- Eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases
- Hypereosinophilic syndromes
- Allergic diseases, including asthma, anaphylaxis, and mast cell disorders
- Parasitic diseases
- Mycoses
During the next 9 to 10 months of training, fellows join traditional consultation services and didactic rotations at NIH and other medical institutions in the Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, DC, metropolitan areas. Following clinical training, fellows conduct research in any one of the intramural laboratories at NIAID or in other NIH laboratories or programs.
DIR also provides opportunities for physicians to gain clinical and translational research experience in association with a DIR laboratory through the NIAID Transition Program in Clinical Research.