While some may equate residency with clinical training, the UAB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology provides a training option that transcends the medical practicum to specifically cater to physician-scientists.
The residency research track in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology is an innovative program that integrates a research training component within the department’s general psychiatry residency program. The program is known as STEPP, which stands for Supporting Training for Emerging Physician-Scientists in Psychiatry.
“Our trainees are devoted to learning the necessary skills to prepare them for the future integration of scientific breakthroughs into clinical practice,” said Adrienne C. Lahti, Heman E. Drummond Professor and Chair, and Residency Research Track director in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology. “The key components of the STEPP program include personalized career development through individual and team-based mentoring, a tailored didactic curriculum and practical career guidance, and rigorous, hands-on research training in basic, clinical, or translational research focused on a broad spectrum of psychiatric disorders.”
Supporting a broad range of research
The residency research track is part of the general adult psychiatry residency program in the UAB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology. It is a four-year integrated program designed to complement the clinical training psychiatry residents receive.
Peter J. Teravskis, M.D., J.D., is serving as research track chief resident for 2025-2026. Teravskis explained that research track residents spend their first year working with the leadership team to identify a faculty mentor for their research while attending educational meetings including monthly seminars and journal club, which continue throughout the four years of training. Mentors range from both physician to non-physician faculty and collaborators across various areas.
“We encourage residents to seek mentors and research opportunities both within the psychiatry department, but also in collaboration with the many neuroscientists and neurologists studying biological systems adjacent to psychiatry,” Teravskis explained. “We actively look for ways to ensure that resident research interests can be explored and expressed within the broader fields of psychiatry, psychology, and neurobiology. Residents are supported by research mentors who understand both medical training and research to help them integrate both of these disciplines.”
Reid Black, M.D., who recently graduated from the research track program, explained how it supports a variety of research efforts—spanning basic, translational, and clinical psychiatric research—in part depending on the mentor residents select.
“Research track residents can pursue laboratory-based projects involving animal models, molecular techniques, and neuroscience methods,” said Black, giving optogenetics, epigenetics, and neurocircuitry as examples. “In the translational space, ongoing studies at UAB include neuroimaging, biomarker discovery, and investigations into disease mechanisms. Clinically, research track residents can gain experience in managing clinical trials, conducting observational studies, and applying pharmacological and behavioral interventions.”
Technical skills in the research track are divided into two major categories: specific research methods and broader competencies for successful careers in academic research, such as analyzing scientific literature, navigating funding mechanisms, making a career in research in the university system, and preparing grant proposals for early-career researchers.
“There are few limitations on the type of research that our residents participate in, leading to specialized technical skill development tailored to individual interests,” Teravskis said. “Broader skill development focuses on developing core competencies for physician-scientists.”
In their second year, research track residents receive two months of protected time to begin their research projects and get acquainted with their labs, while years three and four offer 50 percent protected time for residents to continue their research projects and prepare for the next steps in their careers as physician-scientists.
Personal experience and multi-disciplinary collaboration
Working with both primary and secondary faculty mentors offers research track residents the unique opportunity for collaboration across multiple departments.
“In the research track, I met regularly with my primary mentor in the Department of Psychiatry and secondary mentor in the Department of Surgery to discuss my project and ideas for future experiments,” Black said. “I attended both of their lab meetings, where I discussed my work as well as others' projects in each lab. My mentor also connected me with other projects in the department so that I could have experience with clinical research in addition to basic research.”
Black said the research track has empowered him to move forward in his career as an academic researcher.
“My goal is to work in an academic setting, and I feel better prepared to support and advocate for residents and colleagues who are pursuing research as a career,” Black said. “I also have learned skills that will allow me to directly support projects that trainees are pursuing.”
For Teravskis, who said he became interested in basic and translational neurodegeneration research prior to residency, the research track has provided him a platform to embrace new interests in neuroendocrinology and grow as a researcher.
“The psychiatry research track offers unique opportunities to continue my basic research, but in a field that is less well defined, with new and emerging tools for studying the brain,” Teravskis said. “This was an opportunity for me to reconnect with why I studied neuroscience and to work at the frontier of neuroscience. The research track also allowed me to gain technical skills in methods that I had never encountered before. I get to take that know-how with me in my career, making me a better scientist.”
Joining the research track
The research track in the UAB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology is open to incoming medical students interested in a research-oriented career. It is also a pathway that general psychiatry residents can identify and join during their PGY1 year.
“If you have a dedication to research and a desire to explore a career as a physician-scientist, there is no downside to applying, Teravskis said. “UAB’s psychiatry research track offers the flexibility to craft your own research experience and find mentorship in a supportive environment.”