The Graduate Program in Urology at EPM/UNIFESP initiated its activities in 1978, and in 1999 it broadened its scope, in order to receive professionals from the many careers in Health Sciences.
The Graduate Program in Urology of the Paulista School of Medicine (EPM) / Sao Paulo Federal University (UNIFESP) initiated its activities in 1978, focusing at that time on graduate training of physicians for a Masters or PhD degree in Urology. Until 1999, the Program had trained 60 physicians, 41 Masters and 19 PhDs. After 1999, the Program broadened its scope of action to receive professionals from the diverse careers from the Health Sciences area, and started graduating Masters or PhD degrees in Sciences. From 2000 to 2019, 216 graduate students were trained, of which 70 Masters and 146 PhDs. Therefore, in our 40 years, we have contributed for the intellectual training in the Urology area of 111 Masters and 165 PhDs.
The 2000-2010 decade was characterized by a strong investment in the development of basic research capacities, of which we highlight the investment in molecular biology, cellular biology, proteomic and metabolomic techniques. In 2007, in order to integrate the basic and applied areas of research, with an actual concept of translational research in Urology, the Urological Research Center was conceived and built, an area exclusively intended to the Graduate Program in Urology. This setting allowed a large increase in the Program’s capacity of students’ training, research projects’ financing and the Program’s internationalization. In 2016, the Program started an internal grant of experimental research projects and in vitro models for the study of urological diseases. These models allow the development of research projects with a translational character, because they allow a different type of manipulation that our clinical and observational studies do not allow.
From 2010 on, the Program begun a process of transformation and adequacy to the current University standards. With the approval of the new UNIFESP Statute and Regiment and, more specifically, of the Regiment of Graduate Studies and Research, we created the Graduate Studies Committee of the Graduate Program in Urology (CEPG-Uro), including the participation of one graduate student and four advisors of the Program. This is democratically elected, and has already brought many benefits to our Program. At the end of 2013, the new Regulation of the Graduate Program in Urology was approved. Then, a communication flow between the CEPG-Uro, the advisors and the students was created, assuring representativeness and the contribution of all the Graduate Program in Urology community. More recently, a book was created for the new Graduate students of the Program, in order to inform them about the Program’s and the University’s infrastructure, as well as about the students’ rights and duties.
Regarding the investments, the Graduate Program in Urology started, in 2008, a program of fund-raising from several sources. This program created the culture, among our advisors, of fund-raising, which has allowed our Program independence in maintenance and updates of our equipments, as well as of assurance of reagents for our research projects. Currently, these funds have enabled the Program to start building its own Research Center (construction in progress) and to be equipped with a different type of equipments, offering security to students and researchers that research projects can be carried out. Even so, at the end of 2018, we acquired a nucleic acid sequencing platform to support our studies in microRNA and transcriptomics, and in 2019, we acquired equipment for isolating extracellular vesicles, both from urine, as well as semen and follicular fluid.
Currently, the Program is divided into two main areas: (i) Urological Morpho-functional and Biotechnological Development, (ii) Human Reproduction and Andrology. These areas are distributed into 9 different research focuses, divided into 24 research projects and 13 permanent advisors.