The objectives of the Career Development Program in Omics of Lung Diseases (K12) entitled Omics of Inflammatory Airway Diseases are to develop and evaluate an interdisciplinary program that will educate young pulmonary investigators in methods of integrative omics technologies including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, computational modeling, and systems biology. Scholars (2/year for years 2 through 5 of this Award) will be clinical or research (postdoctoral) instructors or recently appointed Assistant Professors who are within 5 years of completion of residency or receipt of Ph.D. Scholars are expected to become independent investigators and assume leadership roles in using omics technologies to elucidate pulmonary diseases. The central omics focus of the program exploits the strong commitment of the faculty at Washington University to apply multiple omics-based methods to investigation of the biological basis of inflammatory airway diseases. To insure expertise in clinical research methods, responsible conduct of research, and the scientific prerequisites for submission of a K Award application, the scholars will take courses in the well-established Clinical Research Training Center (CRTC)(TL1 TR000449-06 and KL2 TR000450-06) sponsored by Washington University's Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (CTSA: UL1 TR000448-06). Also during the first year, to provide hands on omics research experience, scholars will participate in 3 month, educational immersion rotations with established omics- or pulmonary-based teams of investigators, and attend relevant, ongoing conferences, journal clubs, and lectures. Each scholar's mentored research experience will begin in January of the first year with the selection of a mentor team and scholarship oversight committee that will prepare her/him for submission of a K Award application by February of the second year.
The Specific Aims for this career development program will include:
Specific Aim (1): We will provide fundamental training in clinical research, omics strategies, and systems biology with emphasis on translational research.
Specific Aim (2): We will provide extensive mentoring to the scholars for career development and for developing independent research plans that focus on lung diseases.
Specific Aim (3): We will support scholars by helping them prepare independent career development research grants such as K08, K23, and R01 Awards and by taking full advantage of the extraordinary resources of the participating mentors and institutional environment.
Specific Aim (4): We will develop and implement plans for evaluating and tracking the effectiveness and success of these efforts for each scholar up to 10 years after completion of the program.

Public Health Relevance

Inflammatory airway diseases (for example, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis, and chronic bronchitis) cause significant morbidity and mortality in both children and adults. To discover new ways of diagnosing, treating, and preventing these serious lung diseases, this career development program will train young pulmonary scientists to apply new analytic 'omics' tools (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, computational modeling, and systems biology) to the study of lung diseases. These new tools will permit discovery of disease mechanism pathogenesis, novel pharmacological targets, disease biomarkers, and environmental disease triggers.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Physician Scientist Award (Program) (PSA) (K12)
Project #
5K12HL120002-03
Application #
8857251
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZHL1)
Program Officer
Colombini-Hatch, Sandra
Project Start
2013-09-01
Project End
2016-05-31
Budget Start
2015-06-01
Budget End
2016-05-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Washington University
Department
Pediatrics
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
068552207
City
Saint Louis
State
MO
Country
United States
Zip Code
63130
Towe, Christopher T; White, Frances V; Grady, R Mark et al. (2018) Infants with Atypical Presentations of Alveolar Capillary Dysplasia with Misalignment of the Pulmonary Veins Who Underwent Bilateral Lung Transplantation. J Pediatr 194:158-164.e1
Wambach, Jennifer A; Wegner, Daniel J; Yang, Ping et al. (2018) Functional characterization of biallelic RTTN variants identified in an infant with microcephaly, simplified gyral pattern, pontocerebellar hypoplasia, and seizures. Pediatr Res 84:435-441
Blatter, Joshua A; Sweet, Stuart C; Conrad, Carol et al. (2018) Anellovirus loads are associated with outcomes in pediatric lung transplantation. Pediatr Transplant 22:
Wambach, Jennifer A; Stettner, Georg M; Haack, Tobias B et al. (2017) Survival among children with ""Lethal"" congenital contracture syndrome 11 caused by novel mutations in the gliomedin gene (GLDN). Hum Mutat 38:1477-1484
Pittman, Jessica E; Wylie, Kristine M; Akers, Kathryn et al. (2017) Association of Antibiotics, Airway Microbiome, and Inflammation in Infants with Cystic Fibrosis. Ann Am Thorac Soc 14:1548-1555
Eldridge, Whitney B; Zhang, Qunyuan; Faro, Albert et al. (2017) Outcomes of Lung Transplantation for Infants and Children with Genetic Disorders of Surfactant Metabolism. J Pediatr 184:157-164.e2
Baldridge, Dustin; Heeley, Jennifer; Vineyard, Marisa et al. (2017) The Exome Clinic and the role of medical genetics expertise in the interpretation of exome sequencing results. Genet Med 19:1040-1048
Wambach, Jennifer A; Yang, Ping; Wegner, Daniel J et al. (2016) Functional Characterization of ATP-Binding Cassette Transporter A3 Mutations from Infants with Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 55:716-721
Pittman, Jessica E; Davis, Stephanie D (2016) Decline in Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 Second in Cystic Fibrosis--Watch the Pendulum Swing. J Pediatr 169:7-9
Blatter, Joshua; Brehm, John M; Sordillo, Joanne et al. (2016) Folate Deficiency, Atopy, and Severe Asthma Exacerbations in Puerto Rican Children. Ann Am Thorac Soc 13:223-30

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