Medicine is changing faster than ever — shaped by breakthroughs in genomics, artificial intelligence, immunotherapy and personalized care. But at the center of that transformation remains a timeless truth: The most powerful medical advances often begin with asking the right questions.
For more than 50 years, WashU Medicine’s Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) has been preparing those kinds of leaders — physician-scientists who bridge the worlds of patient care and scientific discovery. Now, thanks to a transformative $15 million gift from Roy and Diana Vagelos, the future of that work is more secure and more ambitious than ever.
The gift will create a permanent endowment to support the education, research and professional development of future physician-scientists. In recognition, the program has been named the Roy Vagelos Medical Scientist Training Program.
David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and the George and Carol Bauer Dean of WashU Medicine, cast the gift as both a continuation and a push forward. “Physician-scientists have played an important role in the rapid advances in biomedical research over many decades, and the WashU Medicine MSTP has been a world leader in training and nurturing these types of careers,” said Perlmutter.
“Roy Vagelos started the program with Bill Danforth, and this newest gift will help sustain the program and WashU Medicine’s legacy of scientific innovation and excellence in training. Roy and Diana are true champions of physician-scientists.”
A vision that endures
WashU Medicine’s MSTP is one of the largest and most prestigious MD/PhD programs in the country. Students pursue a rigorous, integrated curriculum that immerses them in both clinical medicine and research from the start. The training is long — often eight years or more — and the expectations are high. But the results speak for themselves: Program graduates have gone on to make lasting contributions in academic medicine, biotech, pharma and public health on a global scale.
The Vageloses’ gift allows the program to build on this success by deepening support for students, expanding research opportunities and enabling new educational models that meet the evolving demands of biomedical science.
“We believe in investing in people who can make a difference,” said Roy Vagelos, MD. “The physician-scientist is uniquely positioned to identify clinical problems and pursue the science that leads to solutions.”
A commitment beyond the gift
Roy and Diana Vagelos have long understood the power of education to drive change. Roy, a physician-scientist and former CEO of Merck & Co., set in motion a half-century of innovation in training when he helped launch WashU Medicine’s MSTP in 1969. Since then, the couple has funded scholarships, fellowships, professorships and facilities supporting science and medical education — always with an eye toward the next generation of leaders.
Their latest gift reflects both that legacy and the belief that the future of medicine depends on the people we train today. It’s an investment in the kind of leadership the world needs now — doctors who can decode a genome and deliver bad news with compassion, and scientists who understand not just mechanisms of disease but the human stories behind them.
WashU Medicine’s MSTP is about more than producing MD/PhDs, it’s about shaping the bright minds who will lead the next era of biomedical innovation.
For Roy and Diana Vagelos, that mission is personal. “The students are our future,” Roy said. “And if we want a better future for medicine, this is where we need to invest.”
Published in the Autumn 2025 issue