This is a resubmission application for a training grant in Immunology and Infectious Diseases to be jointly shared by The University of Vermont (UVM) in Burlington, VT, and the Trudeau Institute in nearby Saranac Lake, NY. A request is made for 2 graduate student positions (1 in year one, 2 in subsequent years). There are eight UVM faculty and 9 Trudeau faculty. All faculty are members of the Graduate College at UVM and are NIH-funded (often with several grants), have robust research programs and publication records, and have mentored several students and/or postdoctoral fellows. The theme of this training grant is the response of the immune system to infectious agents. It combines complimentary expertise of the Program faculty at UVM in signaling events related to cell growth, cytokine production, and cell death. They are also highly competent in immunogenetics and microbial pathogenesis. The Trudeau faculty has considerable expertise on in vivo models of the immune response to infectious diseases. This resulted in the award of a shared Program Project Grant in 1999 between UVM and the Trudeau Institute on Th1/Th2 development. In addition, Program faculty are investigating several microorganisms listed in NIAID Pathogen Categories A-C. To further support this effort, UVM will initiate the new Vermont Immunology/Infectious Disease Center, which is submitting a COBRE grant. The resources and environments of both institutions contain state-of-the-art facilities. In particular, the UVM teleconferencing system is one of the most up-to-date and far-reaching facilities in the nation. As it is already connected to the Trudeau Institute, this will make it easy for students and investigators at both institutions to attend each other's seminars in real-time. Our student applicant pool is large and highly qualified. It will come from the two largest and best peer-reviewed graduate programs in the biological sciences at UVM. The P.I. of this grant is Director of one of these two graduate programs. Finally, this is a timely moment to promote a graduate training program in Immunology and Infectious Diseases. The current national interest in biodefense notwithstanding, the molecular breakthroughs in cell signaling over the past decade are now beginning to be refocused on traditional cellular immunological questions related to real in vivo models of infection diseases.
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