International Students

Sbs International Students

The College of Biomedical and Translational Sciences at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth welcomes international students and visitors from across the globe to train in our programs and conduct research in our laboratories.

We encourage prospective students from the international community to explore our programs and consider joining us as we transform the lives of the next generation of scientists, educators and caregivers and create solutions to health challenges that impact communities around the world.

New and current students

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Find resources and information to help prepare you for your time at HSC.

Future students

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Explore our programs and learn more about the admissions process.

International Student Association

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ISA represents and provides support to students of international origin.

Student stories

Michael Donkor Sbs Grad Copy 768x960 CopyA recent College of Biomedical and Translational Sciences graduate wants to improve the chances of survival for cancer patients by stopping the spread of tumors throughout the body.

Michael Donkor, PhD, created a vaccine that stops the spread of breast cancer to the lungs. The project, which he conducted for his dissertation research, was successful in mouse models and could be expanded to test the vaccine in other pre-clinical settings.

“What we wanted to do differently was to tackle metastasis and not the primary tumor itself,” Donkor said. “We identified the lung as one of the most frequent sites of cancer metastasis and engineered a vaccine based on nanotechnology to induce an immune response against the tumor. The goal was to prevent tumor cells from other parts of the body from seeding in the lungs.”

Though Fort Worth is a long way from Ghana, he found a welcoming community that included several international students from his home country. They also came to the HSC College of Biomedical and Translational Sciences for research opportunities they didn’t have back home.

“The students from Ghana kept me confident,” Donkor said. “We are like a family. We get together and celebrate when someone achieves something, and we rely on each other for help.”

That encouragement from his friends and fellow students combined with the support of the College of Biomedical and Translational Sciences faculty were keys to success for Donkor.

Nana Kofi Kusi-BoadumNana Kofi Kusi-Boadum, PhD candidate in the College of Biomedical and Translational Sciences at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, was awarded a prestigious American Heart Association predoctoral fellowship to support his research project that explores the nervous system’s role in nicotine addiction.  

According to the CDC, cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the US and a major cause of cardiovascular disease. 

“A lot of these people are seeking interventions, but every year, only 8 out of 100 people who decide to give it up are successful without relapsing,” Kusi-Boadum said.  

Kusi-Boadum’s project explores the interoceptive actions of ganglion stimulants and nicotine reward and could lead to new treatments to help smokers quit. 

“My goal is to find new targets for treatments and I’m considering the role the autonomic system plays in acting as a cue for the central effects of nicotine,” he said. 

Read more…

Hsc Students At Bor Aug 2024PhD Student Nina Donkor was selected to represent the College of Biomedical and Translational Sciences at a recent UNT System Board of Regents Meeting.

Nina shared her academic journey, from becoming a Pharmacist in Ghana, to joining the PhD in Biomedical Sciences program at HSC and pursuing research that explores the mechanisms involved in the progression of glaucoma with the goal of identifying new targets for new therapies to help manage the disease. All the way, she was guided by the question, “How can I help?”