Sarnoff Fellowship Program 2019 for Medical Students in USA

The cornerstone of the Sarnoff Fellowship is the special interaction between the medical students and the laboratory Preceptor with scientific and mentoring expertise. This close relationship, developed during the course of the Fellowship, and continuing throughout the Fellow’s career, is enhanced by additional interactions with the Sarnoff Scientific Committee and Sarnoff Alumni. These experiences cultivate a life-long appreciation and enthusiasm for cardiovascular investigation, leading many to choose a career in cardiovascular research. The Foundation’s investment in the Sarnoff Fellow is life-long.

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The mission of Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation is to develop medical students throughout their careers into the next generation of leaders in cardiovascular innovation, research, and medicine by providing mentored research experiences and lifelong community.

The fellowship program offers a one-year monetary support and a lifetime academic support the medical students living in US and in other countries who are interested in cardiovascular research.

Stanley J. Sarnoff, MD, a Princeton and Johns Hopkins Medical School graduate, and the son of a prominent surgeon, initially followed in his father’s steps, but soon found his calling in research of the heart and its systems.  Many of his early papers were based on his observations in the operating room during his early surgical training with his father.  During his lifetime, he published more than 200 papers and developed 60 patented devices, including the auto-injector, the ancestor of today’s Epi-Pen.  To spread his knowledge and good fortune, and to perpetuate the essential mentor-trainee experience, he established this Foundation, originally called The Stanley J. Sarnoff Endowment for Cardiovascular Science, Inc.

After his training, Sarnoff spent a dozen years at the Harvard School of Public Health.  He continued as Chief of the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Physiology at the National Institutes of Health.  It was there that he published some of his best-known research papers.  He and his colleagues and trainees published much of the ground-breaking research in cardiovascular physiology.

After leaving NIH, Dr. Sarnoff focused on his company, Survival Technology, Inc. (“STI”), which manufactured, most famously his auto-injectors.  Developed first to administer a nerve gas antidote for use by the military, he applied them as a way to ward off sudden death from a heart attack before the patient could be treated by a medical team.  The company thrived.  STI traded on the NASDAQ.  It was acquired in 1996.

STI advanced the treatment of medical emergencies through applied research.  As STI prospered financially, Dr. Sarnoff conceived of the idea of applying some of his fortune to creating opportunities for medical students to train in the laboratory.  He based his idea on the positive experience of training Myron Weisfeldt, then a medical student, in his lab at NIH.  Dr. Weisfeldt served as Chief of Medicine at Johns Hopkins for many years and credits Dr. Sarnoff with much of his success.

In 1979, Dr. Sarnoff funded the first Sarnoff Fellow.  The plan was simple:  the medical student would leave school for one year, work in the laboratory of a prominent cardiovascular scientist, conducting his/her own research, participate as an independent researcher, and, at the end, report his/her findings to his/her mentors.  At what became the first of many Annual Meetings, the new Fellows gathered, with their mentors and Dr. Sarnoff, at a meeting in Washington, DC, to discuss their research experiences.  The year was intended to expose the students to the rewards of scientific research, as well as a way to expand their thinking in general.  Later, the Sarnoff Foundation became the model for the American Heart Association Research Scholarship Program and the Fellowship Programs sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes for Health.

Dr. Stanley Sarnoff died in 1990, awaiting a heart transplant. Since Dr. Sarnoff’s death, many Sarnoff Alumni have served as representatives on the Foundation’s Boards and Committees and have also participated as Sponsors and Preceptors to the new Fellows.

Since its inception, the Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation has funded more than 397 Fellows and 32 Scholars.